I did hear the horn of Heimdallr
That morning of Ragnarök.
Gjallarhorn roared with the magnitude
Of one thousand dragons’ roars,
And the earth quaked beneath my feet
As I stood looking out at the rising sun.
A silence followed after and the wind died down.
All was still.
All was silent.
Then the fire came down as Surtr’s foot
Broke through the night.
Midgard became Vigrid,
An open battlefield for gods,
The sun and moon were swallowed
By the wolves Sköll and Hati.
Fenrir broke through the sky,
The shards of stars crashing down,
And in his claws was Odin,
His jugular ripped by marred, biting teeth.
Then fell Sleipnir, mangled and beaten.
In my peripheral, the sea boiled over,
Tainted crimson by the blood of Aesir
And Jotuns alike.
It scorched the beaches, steaming hot,
Setting fire to all living things—
Burning children alive.
The blood stirred and churned,
Turning up as a monstrous creature emerged.
It was the Midgard Serpent, answering the call
Of Ragnarök.
He stood tall and his great, big, yellow eyes
Stood out against the fiery sky.
Valkyries flew around his head, carrying
The Einherjar of Valhalla, great warriors
Who once fought Midgard’s battles and fell.
On the horizon was Hel’s ship, sailing
The crimson waves of the dead, a dark fog
Clouding the space around it.
And finally came Loki, the God of Chaos and Mischief,
Riding on his magic to destroy what was left
Of burning, beautiful Midgard.
Lightning flashed as Thor wielded his hammer,
A thunderous clap resonated through the air.
The Midgard Serpent thrashed, biting and snapping
At the God of Thunder.
If I took a step back, and looked at the epic battle
As a whole, I wondered how I could still be alive.
Even so, the outcome would be the same.
No heroes of war nor gods of legend
Could save the Nine Realms from its own chaos.
As I stood atop a rock to escape the burning embers,
Something broke free through the ash
Of what used to be.
It was the roots of Yggdrasil that reached up to me.
They curled around my limbs, caressing my body
And protected me from harm.
Surtr spotted me then—Loki turned as well.
Fenrir looked up from a corpse, and the Serpent’s eyes
Pierced through my soul.
Hel’s gaze fell upon me as her ship crashed against the shore.
They watched me as I was drug down.
The ground swallowed me whole, engulfing my skin
With soft coolness, and there I was placed on the ground
In the hollow of the Tree of Life.
Within those three days of fighting, I listened.
We listened.
He was drug down, too, to stay and be protected just as me.
We were together—the man and woman
Who were to rebuild the world.
