Norse mythology predicts nuclear winter?

Hello,

I was reading over some norse mythology the other day and found it all very intresting. I am a history major and i believe that all the ancient mythologies were not just random tall tales, but actually truths about the nature of our universe cloaked as easily remembered stories.

i think that most of the "gods" are not actual people, but archtypes of forces and ideas found in nature. with all this in mind when i read mythology i try and discern what was being communicated to us.

all ancient cultures tell of the end times. the greeks spoke of the golden age and how the earth would gradually become more and more corrupt and then eventually would be destroyed. daniel in the bible talked of the diffrent empires, one of gold, one of silver, bronze, iron, and clay and the eventual destruction of the world.

the hindus spoke of a wonderful time called krita yuga, that would then be followed by a time of unbearable darkness and corruption called the kali yuga when the earth would be destroyed and then reborn.

everyone is aware of the mayan prophecies. but long story short most ancient mythology lines up extremely well with other cultures ancient mythology, even though those cultures never came into contact with each other.

one intresting thing i found in norse mythology is the tale of the end of time, Ragnarök. "ragna" means gods or ruling powers. "rok" means development, origin, cause, relation, fate, and end. i find it intresting that it means both begining and end. it fits in with the norse beliefs that even the end of the world is the begining of a new world. there is no death without rebirth. this is the final battle where the gods will battle the forces of evil and all will be destroyed, both the gods and the evil doers.

en.wikipedia.org...

the most intresting thing i found was that before Ragnarök takes place there will be something called the Fimbulvetr. it is described as thus:

Fimbulvetr is three successive winters where snow comes in from all directions, without any intervening summer. During this time, there will be innumerable wars and brothers will kill brothers.

to me that sounds alot like a nuclear winter. it also goes on to say that the sun will be practically useless and the moon will be obscured (possibly from dust ash and nuclear fallout?)

anyway i found it all very intresting, if anyone is from scandinavia or has exstensive knowladge of norse mythology or just mythology in general id be intrested to hear what you think.

Good post. I have been a fan of mythology since I was a kid. Don't study as much as I used to, but I will argree with you that Ragnarok sounds much like nuclear winter. Thor's Hammer; a drone aircraft set to deliver a weapon then return to base? Just a thought.

It kind of sounds like what's being discussed over at what's going on at Yellowstone? The winters without intervening summers, and the ash could be vulcan in meaning.

So many puzzles and so little time!

Very interesting post! I guess that we can add it to the list of endtime prophesies that suddenly seem all too plausible.

I'm from Scandinavia myself (Denmark) but I'm afraid I'm not very knowledgeable about Norse mythology.

I did a little snooping, however, and found that in the myth of Ragnarok there is a great battle and a number of natural disasters, and afterwords the world will be submerged in water and reemerge, after a time, cleansed and reborn at which point two people (the new Adam & Eve?) will repopulate the earth.

I think this fits quite well with your hypothesis, and I it made me think of the idea that technologically advanced civilizations have existed in the past & have perished for some reason, such as the legend of Atlantis. & that the earth has submerged itself every time in order to "heal" itself...

reply to post by MrVertigo

I it made me think of the idea that technologically advanced civilizations have existed in the past & have perished for some reason, such as the legend of Atlantis. & that the earth has submerged itself every time in order to "heal" itself...

i completely agree. there are many things in history that simply cannot be exsplained by the conventional means. the pyramids are an excellent example. the legends of atlantis another. i feel strongly that at one time all the ancient cultures knew the same information, and as the earth enterd a stage of intellectual darkness that information became obscured and lost. think of the burning of the alexandian library. what truth from mankinds collective past vanished that day? we will never know for certain, but clues can still be found in mythology.

during the battle of Ragnarök one of the giants (the doers of evil) named sutr will fling fire over the entire earth that certainly sounds like a nuclear holocaust to me. it is intresting that mankind will live on though in the story
two humans named Líf and Lífþrasir will hide themselves during the final battle in a woodland (though maybe they wanted to say fallout shelter?) afterwards they will reemerge to a world cleansed of all evil by the final battle and they will repopulate the world.

the names Líf and Lífþrasir mean "life" and "striving after life" so it can really be said that instead of two actual people the represent "those who remained" or "the survivors"

en.wikipedia.org...

anyway you look at it though if you keep an open mind to these old stories it seems the further in the past you go, the closer you get to the future.

Global warming is the cause of the latest quakes and eruptions.
Think of it this way, underneath the soil its Hot lava, above the soil is suppose to be cool, thus cooling the top layers in such a way that it wont let magma out.

If the top becomes hot, and can not cool the crust in the middle, you begin to experience small quakes as the magma pushed in between the crust/plates but not a full eruption. In the next 1-3 years, you can expect this temperature to rise, and eruptions to be visible from the crust(the front of your house).

It's almost like a defensive mechanism from earth. Trying to restart it self to its normal state.

and etc.. but hey, dont take my word for it. im no scientist.

I have some knowledge and i am also Scandinavian, i guess it's Nordic mythology and much of the old lore have been translated from the huge rune stones erected all over Scandinavia (Denmark esp. but also Sweden, Iceland and Norway). Here we call it 'fimbulvinter', the great winter.

Not sure about the dates, most probably starting with the iron age northern europe (fimbulvetr reference) approx. 500BC ending with the era of the Vikings stretching from 700AD to 1200AD. You can read more about Norse Mythology in the vellums 'poetiska eddan' or Codex Regius:
en.wikipedia.org...



[edit on 29-12-2008 by reugen]

Just for the record... Adam & Eve have nothing to do with Nordic Mythology what so ever.
Another point to take into account is that our ancestors were chewing down on shrooms when they carved those stones... I find that quite funny This is actually a fact.

All scripture is to be taken with a grain of salt. The vikings turned to christianity over time (another form of insanity..) and something entirely different will replace that in time, when a new enlightenment comes along and preaches salvation or doom.

I understand how this could be interesting for those who doesn't live in scandinavia or are facinated with history. But being fed these stories in elementary school, there's nothing much to them.
You should come visit our old viking camp sites. They are pretty well preserved.

For a quick overview over some of the characters in nordic mythology, watch the cartoon called "Valhalla".

reply to post by Syntaxstealth


Global Warming is bunk, that's why they call it "Climate Change" now.

As for that prophecy, eh, I don't know different religions talk about the world being destroyed indifferent ways.

-Lahara

Originally posted by TheRepublic
I am a history major and i believe that all the ancient mythologies were not just random tall tales, but actually truths about the nature of our universe cloaked as easily remembered stories.

I couldn't agree more and if you'd like to read a revered book on this precise phenomena, get "Hamlet's Mill" by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend. A very comprehensive, well-researched piece of work.

I also believe that mankind is subject to cyclical cataclysms. Tradition upon tradition, around the world, speak of golden ages and end times. It appears that once we reach a certain stage in our development, a higher force destroys what we have achieved, forcing us to start again. The Gnostics of old would say that this is an arrogant god who would have us entrapped in this earthly realm rather than succeed in reaching a state of collective gnosis. Others would say it is a righteous god killing us before we do too much damage to ourselves and our planet. Either way, I think we can expect turbulent times ahead and I'm sure our ancestors were privy to far more than we give them credit for.

reply to post by TheRepublic


I gave this guy a star because that has to be one of the better explanations of mythology I've heard in a while and one that follows my own outlook on it. Fables run a similar course. They deal in archetypes, trends and the like, and seem universal in their application, making them timeless.

Much as I find the bible to be crap in most ways on its face, it contains many of the same things, which when taken figuratively, can be pretty spot on for the region it happened in.

reply to post by Cythraul


i cant believe ive never heard of that book before, im looking over it on amazon right now...thanks!

as for the destruction being commenced to send mankind backward i have to say i disagree. i guess it all depends on what is backward and what is forward. if you see todays world as progress than you would see it as a setback, but what if people were just as advanced in the past as far as knowledge, but they did not have all the corruption and evil present on the world like in our time? that would be absolute perfection.

maybe that is what the golden age spoke of was. people were very advanced but lived in harmony with nature and understood its laws. a person knew if they lied or cheated or stole from anyone they were really stealing from themselves.

sadly now we live in a time were our rulers and many neighbors are the liars decievers and cheaters, that would do anything to one up anyone else. if indeed ancient myths tell the tale of the future all these evil people will be washed away (much like noahs flood) leaving the earth and humanity a new chance to rebuild. maybe on the otherside of nuclear war hell, there is a new heaven on earth waiting for those that survive.

reply to post by Cythraul


I have to agree with you. I believe that this whole world is a cultivating dish for human life. Our growth is at the whim of some other higher beings. But i don't believe that these beings, aliens if you will, are "evil" or "bad". I think they are trying to create a race that's even more superior then they themselves. That's why all through out history they have pushed the human race in the right direction. They do this through beings the human race calls "Gods". That's why if you look at all the religions, they have similar ideas and similar beliefs. The "Gods" have similar characteristics and similar qualities. This is because they are one in the same and if not the same being then they share the same beliefs. They use religions to point the human race in the direction that they want us to grow. The most recent example of them pointing us in the right direction that i can think of was Roswell. It was after the crash at Roswell that we gained a lot of the knowledge we have today such as jet engines and such. These beings we see as "Gods" could possibly be exactly that but not in the divine sense but in the sense that they are way more technologically advanced than we are. They could have created our life or just brought us to this world thousands of years ago. If this is so then it disproves evolution and proves that creationism is actually what happened but not in the religious sense. If we were brought here then neither beliefs are valid. What I have said could hold some truth But no matter how much evidence i provide it would still not fully prove my theory. This could be truth or it could be just the ramblings of another crazy man. That's for you to decide. We will never truly know the truth of our history and even the history we do know is not truth. Its truth stuffed with the way the historian wanted to see things. We will never had complete understanding of anything in our world. The knowledge is too great to handle. Maybe one day we will be able to understand and to hold that knowledge but that day is many many life times from now.

reply to post by TheRepublic


Read The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky. Anything written by her, really. It is understood by Theosophy, that certain truths have been misconstrued by countless religions over time, yet still contain a consistent basis of facts.

It will probably double post as anonymous because I just created account.

I urge you, and everybody, to check out H.P. Blavatsky. She knew all about this stuff, and founded Theosophy. She, and others involved, believe in certain ancient truths hidden and misconstrued by religion/culture/society over time.

here is some info for anyone who dosnt really know what nuclear winter will be like:

The nuclear winter scenario predicts that the huge fires caused by nuclear explosions (particularly from burning urban areas) would loft massive amounts of dark smoke and aerosol particles from the fires into the upper troposphere / stratosphere, at 10-15 kilometers (6-9 miles) above the Earth's surface, the absorption of sunlight would further heat the smoke, lifting it into the stratosphere, a layer where the smoke would persist for years, with no rain to wash it out, and would block out much of the sun's light from reaching the surface, causing surface temperatures to drop drastically.

en.wikipedia.org...

It is intresting that as a theory, it appears that even a small scale nuclear war could have massive effects on the environment.

A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2006 found that even a small-scale, regional nuclear war could produce as many direct fatalities as all of World War II and disrupt the global climate for a decade or more. In a regional nuclear conflict scenario where two opposing nations in the subtropics would each use 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons (about 15 kiloton each) on major populated centres, the researchers estimated fatalities from 2.6 million to 16.7 million per country. Also, as much as five million tons of soot would be released, which would produce a cooling of several degrees over large areas of North America and Eurasia, including most of the grain-growing regions. The cooling would last for years and could be "catastrophic" according to the researchers

Intresting that they used india and pakistan as two possible sides in their theoretical scenario. how prescient. maybe the future will look more like fallout 3, then "the jetsons"...

On, at, or the sufficient preposition Ragnarok, the gods and their enemies will kill each other.

Here's a very good explanation, elaborating on most of it. There's good allegory in here, once you connect everything to current events, and on a side note, it is debatable that the Norse and Mayans never came into contact...

www.pantheon.org...

[edit on 29-12-2008 by Lifthrasir to take out a really weirdly formed sentence.]

[edit on 29-12-2008 by Lifthrasir to complete a sentence fragment]

[edit on 29-12-2008 by Lifthrasir]

reply to post by Lifthrasir


thanks for your post. your name is very intresting Lifthrasir. have you studied norse mythology exstensivly? what is your opnion on the nuclear winter being Fimbulvetr?

reply to post by TheRepublic

Scandinavians have stronger winters,could have been already: as written : cold winters with no food and civil wars;
It s such an old Prosa, i would not give too much on that
Is Snorri female or male name?

They can not know what happens in hundreds of years;
They talk of Greenland, which is in between Canada and Russia; When something happens then in awareness and responsibility of those who want it to happen!

And the "clean afterwards and rebirth" sounds like deepest religious superstition.
After the New Orleans Kathrin ? flood, I heard 1 religious believer on Tv saying, it was good because so many " criminals " lived there... !!!!
That's about human charity

reply to post by TheRepublic

It is intresting that as a theory, it appears that even a small scale nuclear war could have massive effects on the environment.

My maternal grandfather was a small boy when a huge asteroid hit rural Siberia in the early 1900's. He said it was year before they really saw the sun again in Pittsburgh PA where he lived.

Dust, dirt, ash debris thrown into the upper atmosphere can circulate a long time before coming back down to earth.

I hope some of our leaders with nuclear weapons come back down to earth soon!