So I've read a bit of the stories of Ragnarok and the destruction of the realms of Asgard. Did the Nordic gods die or did they reincarnate or survive in any way of fashion or form?
From what I know "Ragnarok" hasn't happened yet, though according to some, some of the signs of Ragnarok approaching have started. Here's more information on Ragnarok.
https://britannica.com/event/Ragnarok
According to the article, the gods will die and the Earth will be submerged in water. Then the Earth will rise from the waters again, Balder will rise from the dead, ..etc. However, this is just certain people's understanding of Ragnarok.
Ragnarok is yet to come. We await three very cold winters as a physical sign. Questionably, there will also be a time of brother on brother conflict. Sometimes that appears to be in place. Buy yet what we wait for is a universal battle. I won't get excited until we are well within world war III. Just remember that humankind is the greatest variable, keep venerating your gods and we can postpone it. Leave it to Odin to do the rest.
There are a bunch of theories and thoughts about Ragnarok. There is a lot to account for, including when how and by whom it was written. It is a prophesy in that it is written largely in future tense, but it is described in a way that indicates it already happened. Some also think it might be allegorical to the transition or maybe bringing together of the idea if Christianity coming into norse culture. Deaths of the old gods transitioning to the rise of one God as Baldur is slain, Odin whispers an unknowable something into his ear, and in the end (If I remember correctly) Baldur gets up and remains after everything. Plus themes of sacrifice and rebirth to gain knowledge or ki the old to bring the new are a running theme in the overall mythology. Like how Odin once sacrificed himself, to himself, and used that to gain knowledge of the world.
Also bear in mind that much of what we have of norse mythology (including ragnarok) comes from the eddas; written by a Nordic Christian monk in the 1200's.
One hears that a lot from Norse pagan groups. That the Eddas author was a monk.So...
The Eddas author? A monk? Snorri Sturulsson was brought up by Jon Loptsson, a highly traditional chieftain with immense knowledge of Icelandic lore. Sturlsson himself married at age 20 and was twice "lawspeaker" in Iceland in his thirties.He played at politics in Kink Hakkon's court in his Norway, eventually being assassinated on the king's orders.On the side, he fathered seven children by four women.Any church offices he held were sinecures to draw an income. There's your "Christian monk."
The was was a Christian (as were the vast majority of folks in rapidly-changing Scandanavia then). This did influence his re-telling of his source material. But the man was first and foremost a courtier and religion was first and foremost a policy tool in the hands of a highly ambitious and only intermittently scrupulous individual.
Takeaway: one cannot take Sturlsson at face value, true. But he was scarcely the "Christian monk" that wish-to-be Nordic pagans like to imagine.Indeed, the situation gets almost laughable. "Sturlsson distorted the old myths!!!" "OK...um, in the absence of other material on this or that point, how do you know." Norse paganism is in the same boat as a great many New Agers who like to screech the Bible was "rewritten." OK, wonderful. Uh...what are your sources. Raising one's voice 50 decibels does not do duty for evidence.
