Yggdrasil · Fire
Surtalogi, the Fire of Surtr
The flame of Surtr that ends the world in Gylfaginning and is quenched in Vafþrúðnismál.
In Thorpe’s translation
51. “Vidar and Vali will the gods’ holy fanes inhabit, when Surt’s fire shall be quenched.”
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Vafþrúðnismál, stanza 51 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
In Blackwell’s translation
“After this, Surtur darts fire and flame over the earth, and the whole universe is consumed.”
- I. A. Blackwell (translator), The Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson (the Prose Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Gylfaginning, the account of the end of the world Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
In Vafþrúðnismál the wise giant, asked which of the Æsir will rule the gods’ possession “when Surt’s fire shall be quenched”, names Víðarr and Váli, and says that Móði and Magni will have Mjöllnir. The fire is a marker of time: the world has burned and the next one begins.
Gylfaginning has Surtr fling fire over the earth so that all is consumed, and then describes a new green earth that rises from the sea, where Víðarr and Váli are untouched by flood or by Surtr’s fire. Snorri quotes the poem’s line in support. The fire is part of a sequence of ruin and renewal and is not given a place of its own.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Vafþrúðnismál 50–51 (Thorpe’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- I. A. Blackwell (translator), The Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson (the Prose Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Gylfaginning, the burning of the world and the new earth Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
Names and background
Surtalogi can be read as “Surtr’s flame”, Surtr plus a word for flame; Thorpe translates the poem’s phrase as “Surt’s fire”. What the phrase means is debated: the Wikipedia article on Surtr notes a reading in which the first element is the word for “black” and the flame is a dark one, rather than the fire of the giant by that name.
For that reason the entry treats the fire as tied to Surtr in Snorri’s account, and as an open question in the poem. Snorri also adds a euhemerizing note equating Surt’s fire with the burning of Troy.
- Surtr (Wikipedia) (opens in a new tab), Surtr, sources section Rights: Tertiary source; starting point only.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Vafþrúðnismál 50–51 Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
Where the sources attest it
The fire is named in Vafþrúðnismál (stanzas 50 and 51 in Thorpe’s numbering) and described in Gylfaginning, where Snorri also quotes the poem. The poem treats it as a point in time, and Snorri as an event that burns the earth. Other editions number the stanzas differently. No archaeological or pictorial evidence is known.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Vafþrúðnismál 50–51 Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- I. A. Blackwell (translator), The Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson (the Prose Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Gylfaginning Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).