The end of the world as described in Snorri's Edda and the Bible

Actually you could say that The Revelation of St. John the Divine and the discription of the world's end in Snorra Edda are the same. In the Bible this starts when the seven seals are broken. When the first five are broken disaster breakes loose, wars and plagues. When the sixth seal is broken there'll be a lot of earthquakes, the sun will become black, the moon red like blood and the stars in the sky fall down upon the earth.

In Edda the world's end starts with three years of great war, followed the great Fimbulvetur (which means three winters in a row with no summers in between). Then the wolf Skoll swallows the sun and the wolf Hati Hrodvitnisson swallows the moon and spatters blood all over the sky. The stars in the sky disappear Everyone can see that this is almost the same description as in the Revleation except that Edda's description is much shorter.

Next the Fenrisulfur and Midgardsormur spew fire and poison all over the world. In the Bible the four angels who are chained by Evrat are freed. Their horses have lions' heads (Fenrisulfur) and their tails are like snakes (Midgardsormur). Out of the horses' mouth comes fire and sulphur which is spawn over the world, just like Loki's children do.

There are differences, however, between the descriptions. In the Bible there's some talk about how the world's end affects society and about the coming of Anti-Christ. In Edda the final battle of good and evil is described. Everyone is kills and Surtur (a giant of fire) throws fire all over the world and burns everything to ashes. In the Bible Satan and his servants return, after Christ's kingdom of one thousand years, where only good people live, and they try to mislead the world's people. Then fire falls from heaven and destroys their army and they are thrown into burning hell for ever.

Now everything gets quiet again. In Edda good people go to Gimle and other nice places but bad people go to Nastroend where they'll be punished eternally and the worst people are placed in the Hvergelmir Well where the dragon Nidhoeggur will torture them. The earth rises from the sea again and new gods will take control. In the Bible we are told of the holy city and the new earth where good people live.

From all this you can now see that the ideas of paganism and Christianity of how the world will come to and end are very similar.


Laxdaela Egils Saga Snorri Sturluson