60 free Ragnarök trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ragnarök trivia quiz covers the Norse doom of the gods as told in the Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. The easy questions are the ones any Marvel fan or mythology reader knows: what the word means, which wolf swallows Odin, which serpent Thor fights, who blows the horn, and which fire giant burns the world. From there it moves into the sequence of events: the three winters without a summer, the wolves chasing sun and moon, the ship of dead men's nails, the rainbow bridge that breaks, and the pairings on the battlefield of Vígríðr, from Freyr and Surtr to Loki and Heimdall to Týr and Garmr. The hard end is for people who have read the sources: the etymology fight over rök versus røkkr, the roosters that crow the alarm, Odin's last whisper to Baldr, Víðarr's shoe of leather scraps, Líf and Lífþrasir's diet of dew, the sun's daughter, the gold game pieces found in the grass, the Gosforth Cross and Thorwald's Cross, the volcanic theories, and the 2014 hoax that had Ragnarök arriving on 22 February. Wagner, Marvel and God of War get their own questions. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Ragnarök and the gods, monsters and manuscripts involved, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
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Q 01The Old Norse word ragnarök is usually interpreted as meaning what?
The final destiny of the gods
Its first element, ragna, is the genitive plural of regin, the ruling powers; the second element, rök, means fate or origin.
Q 02The variant form ragnarøkkr, found in one Eddic poem and in the Prose Edda, gives the alternative translation known from Wagner. What is it?
Twilight of the Gods
Scholars long regarded it as folk etymology from the merger of two vowel sounds in Old Icelandic after about 1200.
Q 03Ragnarök is attested primarily in the Poetic Edda and in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by whom?
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri was an Icelandic chieftain twice elected lawspeaker of the Althing; he was assassinated in 1241.
Q 04Which poem of the Poetic Edda gives the fullest account of Ragnarök, spoken by a seeress to Odin?
Völuspá
Its Ragnarök stanzas run from 40 to 58; the völva then describes the aftermath before she "sinks down".
Q 05According to the Prose Edda, what is the first sign of Ragnarök?
Fimbulwinter, three winters with no summer
Before those, three further winters of war will have made brothers kill brothers.
Q 06What does the Old Norse term Fimbulvetr literally mean?
Awful, mighty winter
Snow comes from all directions for three successive winters.
Q 07Which wolf, in Snorri's telling, swallows the sun at the onset of Ragnarök?
Sköll
His brother Hati swallows the moon; both are sons of Fenrir.
Q 08Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel, the monsters of Ragnarök, are all children of Loki and which jötunn?
Angrboða
Snorri says Loki fathered the three with her in Jötunheimr.
Q 09The dwarf-made fetter that held Fenrir until Ragnarök was called what?
Gleipnir
It was made from six mythical ingredients and looked like a silk ribbon.
Q 10When Fenrir was bound, which god lost his right hand as the pledge placed in the wolf's mouth?
Týr
Loki later mocked him for it in Lokasenna; the wrist is "now called the wolf-joint".
Q 11Why, according to High in the Prose Edda, did the gods not simply kill Fenrir once he was bound?
They would not defile their sanctuaries with wolf's blood
They chose this even though prophecy said the wolf would be the death of Odin.
Q 12Which of Odin's sons avenges him by tearing Fenrir's jaws apart?
Víðarr
Víðarr kicks his foot into the lower jaw, grips the upper and rips the mouth apart.
Q 13The thick shoe worn by the god who tears the wolf's jaws apart is said to be made from what?
Leather scraps people cut from their own shoes
Q 21Which god raises the Gjallarhorn and blows it to wake the gods for battle?
Heimdall
He watches from Himinbjörg where the rainbow bridge meets the sky, and has gold teeth.
Q 22What does the name Gjallarhorn mean?
Hollering horn
It is associated with the watchman of the gods and the wise being Mímir, whose well lies under one root of Yggdrasil.
Q 23Which two figures kill each other in single combat at Ragnarök?
Loki and Heimdall
Loki arrives at the battle leading "Hel's own", the dead from the underworld.
He is called the silent god, nearly as strong as Thor.
Q 14Thor kills the Midgard Serpent at Ragnarök but then manages only how many steps before the venom kills him?
Nine
The serpent, Jörmungandr, is another child of Loki and encircles the world biting its own tail.
Q 15Jörmungandr's release of what is counted as one of the signs that Ragnarök is beginning?
His own tail
He grew so large in the ocean around Midgard that he could grasp his own tail, an ouroboros.
Q 16Which fire jötunn advances from the south at Ragnarök with a sword brighter than the sun?
Surtr
He guards Muspelheim, one of only two realms that existed before time began.
Q 17What does the fire giant's name mean in Old Norse?
Black
The volcanic island of Surtsey, which rose off Iceland in 1963, is named after him; he guards Muspelheim.
Q 18Which god fights the fire giant and loses because he had given away his sword to his messenger Skírnir?
Freyr
The sword was the price of wooing the giantess Gerðr.
Q 19The ship Naglfar, which breaks loose at Ragnarök, is made of what?
The nails of the dead
Snorri warns against burying anyone with untrimmed nails, since that only helps finish the ship.
Q 20Which jötunn steers Naglfar, coming from the east with his shield before him?
Hrym
The Prose Edda names Hrym as helmsman; the Poetic Edda has Loki steering in some readings.
Q 24The hound Garmr, "worst of monsters", breaks free from which cave and kills whom?
Gnipahellir; he and Týr kill each other
Völuspá describes his deep howls in front of the cave before his bindings break.
Q 25The final battle is fought on which field, said to stretch a hundred leagues in every direction?
Vígríðr
The sons of Muspell ride there over Bifröst, which breaks beneath them.
Q 26What happens to Bifröst, the rainbow bridge, when the sons of Muspell ride across it?
It collapses beneath them
Gylfaginning describes it as a rainbow bridge; the Poetic Edda calls it Bilröst.
Q 27Odin rides into the last battle carrying which spear?
Gungnir
He wears a gold helmet and a coat of mail and rides to Mímir's well for counsel first.
Q 28Before the battle, three roosters crow the alarm. What colour is Gullinkambi, who crows to the Æsir in Valhalla?
Golden
Fjalar the crimson rooster crows in the forest Gálgviðr and an unnamed soot-red one crows in Hel.
Q 29Where does the world tree Yggdrasil figure in the Ragnarök narrative?
It shudders and groans as the battle nears
The immense ash has three roots, to Urðarbrunnr, Hvergelmir and Mímisbrunnr, and houses the dragon Níðhöggr.
Q 30Loki is bound until Ragnarök with the entrails of which of his sons, turned to iron?
Narfi
A snake placed by Skaði drips venom on his face; his wife Sigyn catches it in a bowl.