Ragnarök, Twilight of the Gods

Ragnarök, Twilight of the Gods is the fifth and final episode in the Ragnarök season from Ubisoft's Echoes of History podcast series.

Description

After spending a lifetime battling giants and feasting plentifully between adventures, the gods of Asgard must now face their doom. Ragnarök, Twilight of the Gods, is looming... Across the Nine Realms, natural catastrophes are striking everywhere and the final battle against the giants is drawing ever closer. The time has finally come for Odin, Thor, and the other Æsir to don their armor and face their destiny.

Transcript

• Gylfi: When I met the gods in Asgard, I was very much marked by the story of the prophecy of Ragnarök. I carried it in the corner of my mind. High, Just-as-High, and Third had only mentioned it briefly, but it had put a dent in my morale. However, it takes a lot to bring down the great Gylfi, king of Sweden. But still, the end of the world? That's inconceivable! When I asked the gods for such details, I really hoped everything would finally end well. I was a little naïve...
• Lance Geiger: I'm Lance Geiger, the History Guy, and you're listening to Echoes of History: Ragnarök, a podcast inspired by the video game Assassin's Creed: Dawn of Ragnarök. How much do you know about Odin, Thor, Loki, and their companions? Do you really know them? Dive into Norse mythology alongside gods, elves, magical creatures, dwarves, and giants, a fantastic universe that guided the destiny of the valiant Vikings as much as it inspired the greatest authors. Episode five, Ragnarök, twilight of the gods. Odin knew since the beginning, since he created the universe with his own hands. The father of all things knew that everything would eventually collapse. The prophecy of Ragnarök is clear, inevitable: one day, the doom of the gods will come. Odin tried everything to change the course of history. He himself has faced the worst monsters, he's relied on Thor to curb the giant's ardor, all the while striving to preserve the fragile balance of the Nine Realms, but even the father of the gods cannot go against destiny.
• Annelie Ireman: I wouldn't say he is haunted by Ragnarök, but he does know about it, which is not the case for all the characters.
• Lance Geiger: Annelie Jarl Ireman, lecturer in Norse studies at the University of Caen.
• Annelie Ireman: He knows Ragnarök is inevitable, because you can't escape your fate, so his job is not to prevent Ragnarök altogether, because he can't do that. His job is to prevent it as long as possible, so to speak. He knows the warning signs, he's always looking for those signs, he is obsessed by everything that happens around him, because he has to know everything that's happening, and when the end will come.
• Lance Geiger: In the end, the fatal blow came from Asgard. The murder of the beloved Baldr, orchestrated by Loki, set in motion the final act of the universe. Soon, the gods see the first sign of Ragnarök when the Nine Realms sink into a relentless winter that lasts three years. The winds blow without interruption and cause infernal snow storms, the men are frozen, and nothing grows on the land cracked with frost and ice. Famine lurks, war is brewing. Exhausted and hungry, the humans who have not yet been decimated begin to kill each other. The gods see the attacks and the plundering on the land of men multiplying. More still, family ties no longer mean anything. Brothers fight each other and sons fight fathers. The fateful day approaches.
• Eric Lacey: There's a kind of stark beauty in Ragnarök, which is the idea that everything must end.
• Lance Geiger: Eric Lacey, lecturer in Language and Literature at the University of Winchester.
• Eric Lacey: Remember, the gods are not—they are very powerful, but they are flawed creatures, just like people are. And all creatures must come to an end at some point. And the way that the gods face Ragnarök—knowing about it but still living their lives and indeed causing the actions that lead about to it—very much mirror how people would have lived their lives in medieval Iceland, in medieval Scandinavia, which is that they knew that death was inevitable.
• Lance Geiger: The darkness of winter is so reinforced by an even deeper darkness. Fenrir, the giant wolf who is also Loki's son, has himself fathered two children, Hati and Sköll, as big as him. For ages, they have tirelessly chased the sun and the moon. At the dawn of Ragnarök, this race ends; the two wolves swallow the two stars. Their light disappears and with it, a feeling of desolation covers the world, an episode that the believers had predicted in their observation of the sky.
• Gísli Sigurdson: The pagans called the Hyades, which is a part of the Taurus sign, that the pagans called it the "wolf's mouth".
• Lance Geiger: Gísli Sigurdson, teacher-researcher at the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík.
• Gísli Sigurdson: That's a V-shaped star pattern, and this sign of the wolf's mouth is located right on the sun's path in the sky—where the sun is moving through in tune from right to left—so it's moving out of the mouth, really. So by midsummer, the sun has safely escaped this v-shaped mouth of the wolf in the sky, giving to the people of Scandinavia ample reason to celebrate the midsummer festival, which is highly regarded in Sweden still today.
• Lance Geiger: But it's not over yet, because earthquakes are shaking the entire universe. Yggdrasil itself, the indestructible world tree, shakes with all its leaves, threatening the Nine Realms nestled between its branches. All living beings are terrorized by the deafening cacophony. Amidst the crashing mountains, Loki, the fallen god, and Fenrir—both captured by Asgard—break free from their chains. Meanwhile, Loki's other son—Jörmungandr, the serpent of Midgard—leaves the sea to reach the land. The waves caught by the movements of his gigantic body engulf entire villages. All the sudden, while the universe is in complete chaos, all creatures, men, and gods freeze. Heimdall has just blown his horn. This is the dreaded signal, the announcement of Ragnarök. Thanks to his sharp eyesight, Heimdall, who is in charge of watching over the Bifröst—the bridge that links Midgard to Asgard—sees hordes of ice giants coming from Jotunheim. Immediately, Odin gathers all the warriors of Valhalla. After a long wait, the time has come for them to fight. The enemy comes from everywhere. The sky opens to let Surtr the giant pass; he leads the procession of fire giants straight from Muspelheim. As for the goddess Hel, she brings out all the dead of Helheim. Finally, Loki, determined to bring down the gods, appears on the horizon, leading a fleet of ships filled with the bloodthirsty giants. After all this time, the death of Ymir, the primordial giant, will finally be avenged. The Bifröst bridge collapses under the weight of the ice giants, therefore, they must fight elsewhere. All the fighters meet on the immense plain of Vígríðr, more than 500 kilometers wide. The two camps, who have been waiting for this moment for so long, face each other. On one side, the giants of ice and fire, Loki and his monstrous children, and the army of the dead. On the other side, the gods of Asgard, their army of warriors from Valhalla, supported by the faithful Valkyries and the men of Midgard, all ready to fight. Odin at their helm is ready to fight, too. Forget the time when he tried to avoid Ragnarök at all cost, now he must throw himself body and soul into battle. Armed with Gungnir, his divine spear, Odin rushes towards Fenrir. The colossal wolf advances towards him with his mouth wide open, its lower jaw touching the earth and its upper jaw brushing the sky. The father of gods fights majestically, but despite his power and strength, he finally gives in, swallowed by the gigantic wolf. It is an unthinkable scene for both gods and men alike. Odin, the father of all things, is dead! It's an overwhelming and solemn moment. But very quickly, far from giving up, all redouble their energy against their enemies. Víðarr, one of Odin's sons, rushes to Fenrir. He blocks the lower jaw of the wolf with his foot, shod with indestructible leather, and thrusts his sword into Fenrir's mouth to pierce his heart. Fenrir collapses, defeated at last. On his side, Thor faces Jörmungandr. He knows the Midgard serpent because he has already fought him once. Moreover, the god of thunder has almost defeated him. The two enemies fight fiercely, and Thor seems to take the upper hand. Finally, he strikes the snake a final blow with his hammer Mjölnir. The monster collapses, but in his last effort, he bites the mighty warrior. Thor turns away from the corpse and takes nine steps before falling, too, poisoned by the venom. The gods have just lost their best asset, their protector. On the planes of Vígríðr, the Dantean battle continues. Heimdall, the father-guardian of the Bifröst, confronts Loki. The two gods are equal strength and kill each other. Loki has unleashed Ragnarök, but he will not see the end of it. Not far away, Surtr the fearsome fire giant wreaks havoc. He first gets rid of Freyr, who, despite being a god, is not exactly the best fighter. The Asgardians fall, one after the other; it's the doom of the gods. Soon, there's no one left to oppose the fury of Surtr. The giant plunges his huge, flaming sword into the earth, and in one blow, Asgard is set ablaze, soon followed by the whole universe. It is the end.
• Eric Lacey: The emphasis on fire really seems to come from Christianity, just like the notion that on Judgment Day, hellfire will rain upon the earth, and Hell will open up, and we'll see flames all over the earth. And it's not in Old Norse, but it's in a similar area, in Old High German, in the language spoken in Germany about the same time that these stories were being written, composed, preserved in Old Norse. We have a text called the Muspilli, and it's actually a Christian text about the end of the world, about Doomsday, but they're using "Muspel", the word for this fire realm, to describe the end of days. So, Christianity actually borrows the terms to refer to the end of times. And that shows the entrenched and prolonged contact that there was between these pagan religions and Christianity, and the way that they mutually influenced each other.
• Lance Geiger: All traces of life have disappeared. All that Odin built has gone up in smoke. The gods are dead, the giants are gone, and all that remains is a devastated landscape. Even Yggdrasil is mostly reduced to ashes. However, in the deafening silence that follows the apocalypse, rustling can be heard. A young human couple timidly descends from the branches of the world tree. Líf and Lífþrasir had taken refuge in a corner of Yggdrasil spared from the flames. After stepping on the hot, cracked ground, they look around, stunned and afraid. No matter how many times they call, no one answers, and for good reasons. They are the only survivors. Líf and Lífþrasir, whose names mean "life" and "desire for life", understand that their mission is to repopulate the world. However, they're not alone after all. Baldr, freed from the world of the dead, joins what remains of Asgard with a new generation of gods. There is Höðr, his blind brother, as well as Magni, son of Thor. They are enlightened and warmed by the daughter of Sól. Before being devoured by the wolf, the goddess of the sun had conceived a child to replace her in the sky. Thanks to them, the new world will be even more beautiful.
• Eric Lacey: There is, then, this quiet optimism at the end of it, which is that Odin's children will eventually inherit the earth and there'll be a whole new cycle. So, just as Odin originally inherited the world and had the gods, and they had control of it, and they, uh, performed their great deeds, so Odin's children will do the same thing. And it's very much mirroring the cycle of time, like summer and winter, or like the progression of years, or like the the following of generations.
• Annelie Ireman: To come back to Baldr, he's one of the gods who survive Ragnarök. He seems to be destined to become the ruler of the new world, which can perhaps be interpreted as the new Christian era or at least a more peaceful world, perhaps.
• Lance Geiger: If order always rises from chaos, each survivor of Ragnarök will have to learn from it. The arrogance of the gods had lead to their downfall. The universe is entitled to a second chance. It's up to the humans and the gods to seize it.
• Gylfi: And that, my friends, is the end. The end of my story, that is. For the end of the world, we still have some time. Before I left Asgard, the gods asked me to spread their stories around me, and now I have. You know everything. I hope that, like me, you will learn the right lessons from these stories of gods and giants. Perhaps you will be inspired by the exploits of Thor. Or will you be aghast at Odin's arrogance? Maybe Loki's twists and turns will push you in the right direction, unlike him. The Norns have woven your destiny, yes, but there's no reason you can't unravel the threads yourselves.
• Lance Geiger: Thank you for listening to Echoes of History: Ragnarök, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by Paradiso Media.

Cast

(By order of appearance, host indicated with italics)

• James Brack as Gylfi
  • David Sighicelli (French)
  • Mark Bremer (German)
• Lance Geiger as himself
  • Benjamin Brillaud (French)
  • Marios Gavrilis (German)
• Prof. Gísli Sigurdson as himself
• Prof. Eric Lacey as himself
• Prof. Annelie Jarl Ireman as herself

Gallery

• File:ECHOES OF HISTORY - RAGNARÖK EP 5 - Ragnarök, Twilight of the Gods