An excerpt from the Poetic Edda concerning Ragnarok or the Twilight of the Gods:
43. Fenrir howls terribly
before the doors to Hel;
the wolf will break its bonds
and run.
I know much wisdom,
I see deep in the future,
all the way to Ragnarok,
a dark day for the gods.
44. Brothers will fight one another
and kill one another,
cousins will break peace
with one another,
the world will be a hard place to live in.
It will be an age of adultery,
an age of the axe, an age of the sword,
an age of storms, an age of wolves,
shields will be cloven.
Before the world sinks in the sea,
there will be no man left
who is true to another.
45. The giants are at play,
and the gods’ fate is kindled
at the blast
of Gjallarhorn:
Heimdall blows that horn hard,
holds it high aloft,
Odin speaks
with Mimir’s head.
46. The old tree sighs
when the giant shakes it—
Yggdrasil still stands,
but it trembles.
47. Fenrir howls terribly
before the doors to Hel;
the wolf will break its bonds
and run.
I know much wisdom,
I see deep in the future,
all the way to Ragnarok,
a dark day for the gods.
48. Hrym advances from the east
with a shield before him,
and the Midgard-serpent
is in a monstrous rage.
The serpent beats the waves,
and the eagle screams eagerly,
splitting corpses with its pale beak.
Naglfar, the giants’ ship, is released.
49. That ship sails from the east,
bearing giants
over the sea,
and Loki is its captain.
The giants are coming
together with Fenrir,
and Loki too is with them
on that voyage.
50. What news from the gods?
What news from the elves?
All Jotunheim is roaring,
the Aesir are in counsel,
and the dwarves,
creatures of the mountains,
tremble by their doors of stone.
Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?
51. Surt comes from the south
with a bright light in his hand,
yes, the sun shines upon
the sword in his grasp.
The mountains collapse,
the trolls fall,
men walk the roads to Hel,
and the skies divide above.
52. Then comes
the second sorrow of Frigg,
when Odin goes
to fight the wolf,
and Frey goes to fight
the giant Surt.
Then Odin, Frigg’s husband,
will fall to Fenrir.
53. Then comes the great
son of Odin, Vithar,
to fight, to avenge
his father on the wolf.
He shoves his sword
into the mouth of Fenrir,
all the way to the heart,
and thus is Odin avenged.
54. Then Thor comes,
Earth’s son,
Odin’s son,
to fight the Midgard-serpent—
the protector of Midgard
will kill that serpent in his rage.
But all humankind
will die out of the world
when Thor falls
after only nine steps,
struck down by the venom
of the honorless serpent.
55. The sun turns black,
the earth sinks into the sea,
the bright stars
fall out of the sky.
Flames scorch
the leaves of Yggdrasil,
a great bonfire
reaches to the highest clouds.
56. Fenrir howls terribly
before the doors to Hel;
the wolf will break its bonds
and run.
I know much wisdom,
I see deep in the future,
all the way to Ragnarok,
a dark day for the gods.
* Source: Jackson Crawford's Poetic Edda, Völuspá, Stanzas 43-56
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Kampf_der_untergehenden_G%C3%B6tter_by_F._W._Heine.jpg
