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Poetic Edda

57.[1] The sun turns black,  earth sinks in the sea,The hot stars down  from heaven are whirled;Fierce grows the steam  and the life-feeding flame,Till fire leaps high  about heaven itself.
58.[2] Now Garm howls loud  before Gnipahellir,The fetters will burst,  and the wolf run free;Much do I know,  and more can seeOf the fate of the gods,  the mighty in fight.
59.[3] Now do I see  the earth anewRise all green  from the waves again;The cataracts fall,  and the eagle flies,And fish he catches  beneath the cliffs.
60.[4] The gods in Ithavoll  meet together,Of the terrible girdler  of earth they talk,

    Thor, who, after slaying the serpent, is overcome by his venomous breath, and dies. Fjorgyn appears in both a masculine and a feminine form. In the masculine it is a name for Othin; in the feminine, as here and in Harbarthsljoth, 56, it apparently refers to Jorth.

  1. ↑ With this stanza ends the account of the destruction.
  2. ↑ Again the refrain-stanza (cf. stanza 44 and note), abbreviated in both manuscripts, as in the case of stanza 49. It is probably misplaced here.
  3. ↑ Here begins the description of the new world which is to rise out of the wreck of the old one. It is on this passage that a few critics have sought to base their argument that the poem is later than the introduction of Christianity (circa 1000), but this theory has never seemed convincing (cf. introductory note).
  4. ↑ The third line of this stanza is not found in Regius. Ithavoll: cf. stanza 7 and note. The girdler of earth: Mith-

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