Timeline of the Myth
From the creation in Ginnungagap to the flame and rebirth of Ragnarök, six ages thread together the chain of doom that binds Norse myth beginning to end. Tap a figure’s badge to jump to its card.
Ⅰ · Ginnungagap and the Creation
The Norse creation begins not with light but with a void and two poles. Between the ice-realm Niflheim and the fire-realm Muspelheim yawns the void of Ginnungagap, where cold ice meets warm air and the dripping melt-water freezes into the first life — the frost giant Ymir. Odin and his brothers slay Ymir and make earth, sea, and mountain from its corpse, then take up driftwood to make the first pair of humans. The world begins from a giant’s corpse, and is fated to return to a corpse in flame.
Ymir and a World Made from a Corpse
In Ginnungagap ice and fire mingle, and the dripping water freezes into the primordial frost giant Ymir, from whom the frost giants spring. Odin, with Vili and Vé, slays Ymir and makes the sea from its blood, the land from its flesh, the mountains from its bones, the sky from its skull, and the clouds from its brains — the whole world reconstructed from a giant’s corpse.
Driftwood Made Human
Odin, Hœnir, and Lóðurr walk along the shore and find two lifeless pieces of driftwood. Odin breathes in breath and soul, the other two give mind, speech, blood, and the senses. The ash becomes the man Ask, the elm the woman Embla, ancestors of all the men and women of the world.
Ⅱ · The World Tree and the Nine Worlds
After creation the cosmos takes shape around the World Tree Yggdrasil: three great roots join the nine worlds — the gods’ Asgard, humans’ Midgard, the giants’ Jötunheim, the ice-realm, the fire-realm, the underworld, and more. The three Norns weave the fates of gods and humans by the tree’s root, Mímir guards the well of wisdom, and Heimdall watches over Bifröst, the rainbow bridge joining the realm of the gods to that of humans. Here the fatalistic ground-tone of the Norse cosmos is laid: even Odin cannot defy a fate already written.
The Well of Fate and the Three Norns
Beneath one great root of the World Tree wells the well of Urðr, where the three Norns — Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld — water the root with the holy water and weave fate. The fate they set neither god nor human can change, and this is the wellspring of the deep sense of doom in Norse myth.
Odin’s Two Sacrifices for Knowledge
To drink from the well of wisdom, Odin gave an eye to its keeper Mímir; to grasp the runes, he pierced himself with a spear and hung upside down on the World Tree for nine days and nights. The highest god of the Norse won wisdom and magic through sacrifice after sacrifice of himself.
Ⅲ · The Dealings of Gods and Giants
Before the end came the long clash and mingling of gods and giants: Thor won back his hammer in a bridal gown and fished up the world serpent; Loki caused trouble and then cleaned it up, again and again; the youth goddess Iðunn’s golden apples were stolen and reclaimed; the giantess Skaði stormed the realm of the gods and made a famous mismatch of a marriage with the sea god. The war between the Vanir and the Æsir ended in a truce exchanging hostages, by which the fertility god Freyr and the goddess Freyja came to rank among the chief gods. This is the most vivid golden age of Asgard.
Thor’s Hammer and Loki’s Mischief
The giant Thrym stole the thunder-hammer and demanded Freyja for a bride, so Thor had to slip into the wedding feast in a bridal gown, win back the hammer, and slaughter the hall of giants. Loki, meanwhile, swung back and forth between theft, mischief, and cleanup — forging treasures for the gods and again and again pushing them to the brink of trouble.
The Golden Apples and the Mismatched Marriage
The giant Þjazi carried off the youth goddess Iðunn and her ageless golden apples, and as the gods swiftly aged they forced Loki to take the shape of a falcon and win her back. After Þjazi was slain, his daughter Skaði stormed the realm of the gods in armor to avenge him, and the gods made peace by marriage; by "choosing a husband by his feet alone" she wrongly chose the sea god Njörðr, making a mismatch of sea and snowy mountain.
Ⅳ · Seeds of Doom: Binding the Wolf, the Death of Baldr
The three children Loki bore with a giantess — the wolf Fenrir, the world serpent Jörmungandr, and the underworld queen Hel — are the gods’ deadliest enemies. The gods contrive to bind Fenrir, and Tyr loses his right hand for it; yet they cannot ward off a deeper tragedy: the god of light Baldr dies by a mistletoe dart contrived by Loki, and cannot return because one being refuses to weep. In fury the gods bind Loki beneath a great rock. Light has fallen, and the countdown to the end has begun.
Binding the Wolf and Tyr’s Hand
The wolf Fenrir grew ever larger, and the prophecy said it would swallow Odin. The gods bound it with a magic ribbon woven by dwarves; the wolf demanded a god lay a hand in its mouth as surety, and only Tyr held out his right hand. The ribbon tightened, Fenrir could not break free, and it bit down — Tyr, with his right hand, secured the gods’ one defense against the end.
The Death of Baldr
Frigg made all things swear not to harm Baldr, overlooking only the mistletoe. Loki learned of it, whittled a dart, and had the blind god Höðr throw it, and the god of light fell. The goddess Hel promised that if all things wept, Baldr could return, but one giantess (most likely Loki in disguise) refused to weep, and Baldr stayed bound in the underworld. In the end the gods bound Loki beneath a rock, venom dripping on his face.
Ⅴ · The Golden Curse of the Völsungs
Beyond the tales of the gods, the Norse have a whole cycle of human heroic sagas. The Völsung line passes down a sword given by Odin from generation to generation: Sigmund draws it and sees it broken; his son Sigurd, with the reforged Gram, slays a dragon, understands the speech of birds, and takes cursed gold and a ring — only to break faith with the Valkyrie Brynhildr through a scheme of potion, making a triangle of tragedy that destroys them all. The cold vengeance of the smith Völund and the snake-pit death-song of the legendary Viking king Ragnar belong to this same lineage of human legend.
Sigurd’s Dragon-Slaying and the Cursed Ring
With the reforged sword Gram, Sigurd slew the dragon Fáfnir, and tasting its blood understood the speech of birds, taking away mountainous but cursed gold and a ring. He gave the ring to Brynhildr, but under a potion broke faith and married Guðrún instead; when the truth came out, Brynhildr contrived Sigurd’s death and threw herself onto his pyre.
The Viking Age and the Sagas of Humankind
In 793 the Vikings raided the monastery of Lindisfarne, taken as the opening of the Viking Age. As Norse people who held Odin and Thor for gods sailed far and wide, sagas such as the smith Völund’s vengeance and the legendary king Ragnar’s snake-pit death-song were recited and set down again and again in this age when faith was sustained by oral poetry.
Ⅵ · Ragnarök and Rebirth
The distinctly Norse, explicitly prophesied end. The Fimbulwinter sweeps the nine worlds, wolves swallow sun and moon, and the World Tree trembles. Loki breaks his chains and leads the host of giants and the dead across the rainbow bridge; Heimdall blows the horn, and Odin’s army of the honored dead marches out to meet them. Odin is devoured by Fenrir, Thor and the world serpent slay each other, Freyr falls to the fire giant Surtr’s sword, and Heimdall and Loki slay each other. Surtr’s flame burns all away, and the land sinks into the sea. Yet this is not the end — after the embers cool, a new earth rises from the sea, Baldr returns from death, and a few surviving gods and a pair of humans begin the world anew.
The Final Battle
Loki breaks his chains and leads Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Surtr, and the host of the dead against Asgard. Heimdall blows the Gjallarhorn, and Odin’s honored dead march out in full. Odin is devoured by Fenrir, and his son Víðarr tears the wolf’s maw apart for him; Thor beats the world serpent dead but dies of its venom; Freyr falls to Surtr empty-handed; Heimdall and Loki slay each other.
The Rising of the New World
Surtr’s flame burns away the nine worlds, and the land sinks into the sea. But after destruction comes rebirth: a green new earth rises from the sea, the few surviving gods gather again, the god of light Baldr returns from the underworld, and a pair of humans who escaped the cataclysm walk out of the World Tree to people the world once more — Norse myth closes on the cycle of destruction and rebirth.