Ragnarok and the Toba Catastrophe

Ragnarok is the end of the world account in Norse Mythology. It starts with the Fimbul-winter, three years of exceptionally cold weather. This leads to a great battle that terminates in what appears to be an enormous volcanic eruption. The battle itself is marked by earth-quakes, represented by the Fenris wolf, and tsunamis represented by the Midgard serpent. As the battle comes to an end, and it is clear that the gods are unable to stop the demons from winning, the sky turns red, people flee their homes and a thick mist engulfs everything. The only survivors are two people able to find refuge in a big forest far from the site of the battle.

Since Norse Mythology has a cyclical philosophy behind it, we can read Ragnarok as something that happened in the past as well as something what will happen in the future.

In this respect, it is interesting to note the direction from which the demons appeared. They came from across a vast ocean to the east, which is strange, because there is no big sea to the east of Norway. The events described in Ragnarok cannot have taken place in Norway, nor any place in Europe for that matter. They must have happened somewhere in the Indian or Pacific Ocean.

As it happens, a truly earth shattering event did happen some 70000 years ago in present day Indonesia. The Toba Catastrophe at the start of the last glaciation period was a super-volcano eruption that wiped out 90% of humankind.

By Dave Harlow, United States Geological Survey - http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Philippines/Pinatubo/images.html, Public Domain, Link