Jia Yan Jiang
1/3/20
Ms. Peterson
Blog #40
Aim: After studying Ragnarok and Book of Revelation, how does humanity’s perspective on the apocalypse reflect its feelings about the present and future?
Do Now: What are the characteristics of the apocalypse in different mythologies?
- World destruction
- End of humanity
- Fire
- Rebirth
- Humanity brings us to apocalypse
- Evil overtakes good
Apocalypse Attributes
- Usually spawned by a natural disaster: floods, fire & brimstone, earthquakes
- Death tolls are high — “cleansing” the Earth
- Earth needs to be “cleansed” from evil
- Only a few humans remain
- Earth is destroyed to be reborn again
- The humans who do remain are responsible for repopulating the Earth
- Brings in a new age of humanity
What is Ragnarok?
The Vikings believed that one day the world as we know it would come to an end, they called this day for Ragnarok. Ragnarok is not only the doom of man but also the end of the Gods and Goddesses. It will be the final battle between the Aesir and Giants. The battle will take place on the plains called Vigrid.
It is here that the mighty Midgard serpent will be emerging from the sea, while it splashes its tail and sprays poison in all directions, causing huge waves crashing towards the land. Meanwhile, the fire giant, Surfr, will set Asgard and Bitrost on fire. Fenrir, the wolf, will break free of his chains and spread death and destruction. The sun and the moon will be swallowed by the wakes Sköll and Hati, and even the world tree, Yggdrasil, will shake the ground.
We left off the lesson reading “Voluspa” from Poetic Edda, translated by Dr. Jackson Crawford
Reflection:
In today’s lesson, we learned about Ragnarok and compared it to other apocalypses in different mythologies. After studying Ragnarok and the Book of Revelation, all apocalypses are about cold winters following each other, people fighting against each other, and monsters destroying the world, causing death of everything including all Gods. After the Earth empty out, it will later come the rebirth of mankind. In the Norse mythology, it is important to realize that all the Gods are trying their best to prevent Ragnarok from happening. Since Ragnarok is not only about the death of monsters, but Gods as well, we can see how the concept of balance is being taken in place. There will be a balance between who is going to die. There would be a complete slate where not just the good wins over the evil or vice versa, but to scale it out equally.
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