Ragnarok: The Death of the Gods & The Destruction of the World

Norse mythology can be broken down into three parts: the mythic past, mythic present, and mythic future. In the past are events like the beginning of the universe and the advent of the first gods and giants; the present is the time in which Ragnarok, the cataclysmic clash that ends the current age of the world, looms near, the world on the precipice and about to plunge into the maw of death and destruction; and in the future is Ragnarok, the end of the world as it currently exists. Though it hadn't yet come to pass, much of what it entailed was known, and to no god were these events better known than Odin. The inexorability of prophecy hung over the Norse gods like the headsman's ax. Odin's mind was burdened by grave knowledge and dire threats: that of his own death, the death of his kin and comrades, and the unraveling, or near to it, of everything he built, the labors of all his life. One of Odin's defining characteristics was the pursuit of knowledge, magic, and wisdom, and in this pursuit he was largely impelled by his own fate. If someone knew how they were going to die, this hypothetical death of the untimely sort, their life would probably revolve around how to avoid their own death. The same was true for Odin, who endeavored to forestall the events of Ragnarok, his death destined therein, by becoming the most formidable version of himself possible: accreting every esoteric detail, learning every spell, no matter how arcane, and becoming the superlative of wile and wisdom.To this end, Odin embarked on many adventures, undertook many trials, and subjected himself to suffering, the sacrifice of grievous bodily harm sometimes needed as payment for what was endowed. He gouged out one of his own eyes as payment to drink from the Well of Mimir; he impaled himself with his spear and, thus transfixed, hanged himself from the World Tree for nine days and nine nights to learn the secrets of the runes; he stole the mead of poetry; he resurrected the dead and communed with spirits; he preserved and reanimated the severed head of Mimir; and he learned Seidr, a feminine type of magic, from the goddess Freyja.