fimbulwinter

Fimbulwinter is a figure in Norse mythology described as an especially severe and prolonged winter that precedes the events of Ragnarök. According to the *Prose Edda* written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, the fimbulwinter will cause the seas to freeze, animals to die of frost, and the gods to be weakened. It is said to last for three successive winters, during which the light is too weak to distinguish day from night. The epic poem *Edda* prophesies that following this great winter a series of catastrophic events, including wars among the gods, the fall of the sky, and the battle at Vigrid, will bring about the destruction of the world and the rebirth of a new one.

The term “fimbul” in Old Norse means “great” or “mighty” and the word “winter” for the season, so the phrase is often translated as “great winter.” The fimbulwinter codifies the notion that the cosmic order can collapse under extreme natural forces, echoing concerns in medieval Icelandic society about the reliability of the climate and the moral responsibility of leaders. While the myth does not appear in the earlier *Poetic Edda*, it surfaces strongly as a late medieval addition in the *Prose Edda*, which was composed to preserve the pagan mythology for a Christian audience. Modern scholarship treats the fimbulwinter as an element of a larger cosmological narrative that includes, among other features, the heroics of the sons of the god Odin, the rising of the midnight sun, and the eventual re-creation of a paradisiacal world.