The Battle of The Doomed Gods - Lessons from Ragnarok

The Norsemen didn’t see time as a linear entity, meaning that it didn’t have a beginning and an end. It was more of a cyclical affair, with eras coming and going along with life’s trials and tribulations flowing closely intertwined.

Ragnarok is the calamitous destruction of the universe and everything in it, including even the gods. If Norse mythology is considered as a chronological set of tales, the story of Ragnarok naturally comes at the very end. For the Vikings, the myth of Ragnarok was a prophecy of what was to come at some unspecified and unknown time in the future, but it had profound implications for how the Vikings understood the world in their own time.

“Someday – whenever the Norns, those inscrutable spinners of fate, decree it – there shall come a Great Winter unlike any other the world has yet seen. The biting winds will blow snows from all directions, and the warmth of the sun will fail, plunging the earth into unprecedented cold. This winter shall last for the length of three normal winters, with no summers in between. Mankind will become so desperate for food and other necessities of life that all laws and morals will fall away, leaving only the bare struggle for survival. It will be an age of swords and axes; brother will slay brother, father will slay son, and son will slay father.”

Thus, Ragnarok is essentially deemed as "The Battle of the Doomed Gods". This cataclysmic battle is to be fought between the gods led by Odin; and the fire giants, the Jötnar, and other monsters led by Loki and Surtr. Not only will most of the gods, giants, and monsters die in this battle, but almost everything in the universe will be destroyed. The gods will decide to go to battle, even though they know what the prophecies have foretold concerning the outcome of this clash. They will arm themselves and meet their enemies on a battlefield called Vigrid.

What would such a belief have meant for the Norse?

Ragnarok was a profoundly dark ending that cast hues of tragedy, senselessness, and futility over the world and everything that occurs within it. Even though the Norse did have this idea in mind, Ragnarok also carried another meaning for them. With that said, let us take a look at some eternal lessons we can learn from this seemingly doomed battle.

Inevitable does NOT mean scary.

In addition to being a prophecy about the future that revealed much about the underlying nature of the world along the way, the myth of Ragnarok also served as a definitive model predicting human action.

For the Vikings, the tale didn’t produce hopelessness as much as motivation and spiritedness. Just as the gods will one day die, so too will each individual human being.

Similarly, just as the gods will go out and face their fate with dignity, honor, and courage, so too can humans. In this view, the inevitability of death and misfortune should not paralyze us, but should instead spur us to hold noble attitudes and do noble deeds, making us strive to be better versions of ourselves with each passing day.

Do not give up, even in the face of defeat.

Even though the Norse gods knew their destiny and had heard the prophecies, they fought bravely in their battles of Ragnarok. Even in the awareness of their inevitable defeat, they did not just give up the ship. They gave it their all until they physically no longer could. Odin, Tyr, and the other gods fought the Fire Giants with commendable bravery and utmost determination. This should be a lesson for us in terms of human willpower, where if we believe, we can achieve. And if it is not meant to be, that should never mean we stop working hard towards our goals, both on a societal and personal level.

In some way, we all know that we are mortal and so is this world; and we are all going to perish. But that must never hinder us from striving to live our best life every day, pretty much in the face of death.