Q 01/05

The Old Norse word ragnarök is usually interpreted as meaning what?

A) The hall of the slain

B) The birth of the gods

C) The final destiny of the gods

D) The bridge of the gods

Answer · why

C) 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 02/05

The variant form ragnarøkkr, found in one Eddic poem and in the Prose Edda, gives the alternative translation known from Wagner. What is it?

A) Feast of the Gods

B) Twilight of the Gods

C) Sleep of the Gods

D) Council of the Gods

Answer · why

B) 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 03/05

Ragnarök is attested primarily in the Poetic Edda and in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by whom?

A) Ari the Wise

B) Saxo Grammaticus

C) Sæmundr the Learned

D) Snorri Sturluson

Answer · why

D) Snorri Sturluson

Snorri was an Icelandic chieftain twice elected lawspeaker of the Althing; he was assassinated in 1241.

Q 04/05

Which poem of the Poetic Edda gives the fullest account of Ragnarök, spoken by a seeress to Odin?

A) Völuspá

B) Lokasenna

C) Grímnismál

D) Hávamál

Answer · why

A) Völuspá

Its Ragnarök stanzas run from 40 to 58; the völva then describes the aftermath before she "sinks down".

Q 05/05

According to the Prose Edda, what is the first sign of Ragnarök?

A) A great flood over Midgard

B) Fimbulwinter, three winters with no summer

C) The death of Baldr by mistletoe

D) A blood-red moon over Asgard

Answer · why

B) Fimbulwinter, three winters with no summer

Before those, three further winters of war will have made brothers kill brothers.