Ragnarok

alternative Ragnarök · alternative ragnarök

1. Norsehuman sciencesA series of future events culminating in a battle, fought between the Æsir and the einherjar on one side, and the forces of Surtr, Loki, and Loki's children on the other, in which all of creation is burned down and almost all life is extinguished.

   Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with her good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be some dawn to this ragnarök, or general ‘twilight of the gods.’

   1858, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VIII, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 274

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   And all that is before them and the whole civilised world, would be long centuries of anarchy such as the world has not seen for ages—a true Ragnarok, a twilight of the very gods, an age such as the wise woman foretold in the old Voluspà.

   1902, Charles Kingsley, “Ancient Civilisation”, in Historical Lectures and Essays, Macmillan and Co.

   But this heaven was not to last forever. Some day would come Ragnarok, or the Twilight of the Gods, when all creation would be destroyed, and all the Gods and men save Alfadur perish. Surtur, after killing the last of these Gods, would burn up the world.

   1916 February, H. P. Lovecraft, “The Teuton's Battle-Song”, in United Amateur

   Synonyms: apocalypse, armageddon, doomsday, Götterdämmerung, judgement day, Twilight of the Gods