Three cocks crow, echoing from
Asgard, Jötunheimr, and Hel.
Yggdrasil shudders its ashen roots,
The world worm writhes in anticipation
Drowning the shores of humankind.

Shadows fall over Midgard,
The sun shines black.
Men’s blood stains brothers’ swords,
Skulls cleaved by uncles axes,
No mercy shown, none received.
Death is all we know.

Heimdall’s horn sounds the alarm
From the guardhouse on Bifröst Bridge.
One-eyed warrior Woden calls a war council,
Consulting wise Mimir’s head.
Ready for the battle he’s prepared for
His entire life.

Naglfar, the ship built from the toenails and fingernails
Of ten thousand dead men, sets sail the seas of fate,
Chaos as cargo, Loki stands at the wheel.
Surt and kin march out of Muspelheim single-file
To hide their numbers.

Æsir murmur amongst themselves,
Dwarves stand in stone doorways groaning,
Ælfar are nowhere to be seen.

Fenrir breaks his chains and
Swallows the Alföðr whole,
Þórr slays the mighty Midgard worm
Nine feet from his own death.

Blood soaked sun sets in the west,
Stars fall from the sky,
Ocean overtakes dry land,
As history comes to an end.

But, the Seeress sings,
Midgard will rise above the waves,
Brave Baldar will breathe again,
As the sun shines on the golden game pieces
That the gods played with in days gone by.

11/2-11/6/16

Notes:
Æsir = Eye-sear
Ælfar = Aisle-far (Elves)
Alföðr = Al-father
Bifröst = Bye-frost
Heimdall = Haym-dahl
Jötunheimr = Yo-ton-haym
Muspelheim = Moo-spell-haym
Ragnarök = Rag-na-rock
Þórr = Thor
Yggdrasil = Eeg-drass-ill

Illustration is “Battle of the Doomed Gods” by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1882). Found on Norse Mythology for Smart People