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Muspellsheimr

The burning world of the far south, guarded by Surtr: its sparks lit the sun and stars at creation, and its 'sons' ride out to destroy the world at Ragnarök.

Múspell is the fiery world of the south in Snorri's account of creation. Before the earth was shaped, Snorri says, there were two regions: misty, icy Niflheim in the north and Múspell in the south, "light and hot ... glowing and burning," closed to anyone who does not belong there. Its guardian is the giant Surtr with his flaming sword Gylfaginning 4.

At the beginning

Múspell's heat is one half of creation. Sparks and glowing masses flew out of it into the southern part of Ginnungagap, the Yawning Void; where that heat met the rime from the north, the ice melted and dripped, and life quickened in the drops as the giant Ymir Gylfaginning 5. Later Odin and his brothers took more sparks from Múspellheim and set them in the sky as the sun, moon and stars Gylfaginning 8, and the sun's chariot was made from the same glowing stuff Gylfaginning 11.

At the end

Múspell returns as an army. The "sons of Múspell" will ride over Bifröst and break it Gylfaginning 13. At Ragnarök Surtr rides at their head with fire before and behind, and they form a bright company of their own on the battlefield Gylfaginning 51. Snorri also says that the great ship Naglfar belongs to Múspell Gylfaginning 43. In the poems Múspell is only ever this host: Loki warns Freyr of the day "when Muspell's sons through Myrkwood ride" Lokasenna 42.

The word

The word is a puzzle. Outside Norse it appears in two Christian poems of the ninth century: the Old Saxon Heliand uses mudspelli for the end of the world, and an Old High German poem on the Last Judgment is now called Muspilli after the word. Scholars disagree about whether the word passed from Christian into Norse usage or is an older shared Germanic term for the world's end by fire. Either way, it seems to have meant the catastrophe before it meant a place; the world "Múspellsheimr" may be Snorri's own systematic arrangement.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Yet first was the world in the southern region, which was named Múspell; it is light and hot; that region is glowing and burning, and impassable to such as are outlanders and have not their holdings there.
Gylfaginning 4 Snorri places Múspell in the south, before the world was made.
just as cold arose out of Niflheim, and all terrible things, so also all that looked toward Múspellheim became hot and glowing
Gylfaginning 5 The meeting of Múspell's heat with Niflheim's ice gives rise to life.
they took the glowing embers and sparks that burst forth and had been cast out of Múspellheim, and set them in the midst of the Yawning Void, in the heaven
Gylfaginning 8 The gods make the heavenly lights from Múspell's sparks.
But when Muspell's sons through Myrkwood ride, Thou shalt weaponless wait, poor wretch.
Lokasenna 42 The poems know Múspell only as the name of an army of the end.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • In the poems Múspell is a host ('Muspell's sons'), not a place; the world called Múspellsheimr is known only from Snorri.
  • Snorri's quotation of Völuspá has 'Múspell's folk' coming over the sea with Loki steering (Gylfaginning 51), where Bellows's Völuspá has 'the people of Hel' (Völuspá 51).

Myths with Muspellsheimr

Ragnarök: the doom of the gods The end of the Norse world as told in Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál and Snorri's Gylfaginning: winter and war, the wolf and the serpent loose, the gods killed one by one, and Surtr's fire over the earth. Sun, Moon, Night and Day How the Norse sources explain the sky's clock: Night and Day ride round the world on two horses, the children of Mundilfari drive the sun and moon, and two wolves chase them until the end of the world. The making of the world Before anything existed there was only a yawning gap. Fire and ice met in it, the giant Ymir woke out of the melting rime, and Odin and his brothers killed him and built the world from his body.

Related

Surtr The fire-giant who guards Múspell with a flaming sword; at Ragnarök he rides out from the south, kills Freyr and burns the whole world. Niflheimr The cold, misty world of the north in Snorri's creation story, source of the rivers and later Hel's realm; the poems know only Niflhel, a deep region of the dead. Ginnungagap The empty chasm that existed before the world, between the ice of Niflheim and the fire of Múspell, where the giant Ymir came to life. Ymir The first being, a giant who woke in the melting rime of the primeval void. Odin and his brothers killed him and built the world from his body. Naglfar The great ship made of dead men's nails that breaks loose at Ragnarök and carries the giants against the gods; Snorri names Hrymr as its steersman. Bifröst The bridge between earth and heaven, which Snorri identifies with the rainbow; the gods ride over it each day, Heimdallr guards it, and it breaks at Ragnarök. Ragnarök The foretold end of the gods' world: wolves swallow sun and moon, Loki and the monsters break loose, the gods fall in battle, Surtr burns the earth, and a new world rises. The nine worlds níu heimar The Eddas say there are nine worlds but never list them; the familiar list of nine realms is a modern reconstruction built mostly from Snorri's place-names.