Some are predicting that the world will end Saturday, February 22, 2013, with Ragnarök, also known as Götterdämmerung, by the operatic among us. A reasonable response might be, “the world is ending — again?” We have lived through Y2k, the Mayan Apocalypse, the “Rapture” and a more than a few other end-of-the-world predictions. At least the Viking version sounds like it would make an exciting weekend.  Here is how it is supposed to go down, according to the Daily Mail:

Legend has it that the Norse God, Heimdallr, would blow the mythical Gjallerhorn to warn of the Viking apocalypse, also known as ‘Ragnarok’. … The sound of the horn will call the sons of the god Odin and the heroes to the battlefield, before Odin and other ‘creator gods’ will be killed by Fenrir.

The Vikings believe the Ragnarok is preceded by the ‘winter of winters’, where three freezing winters would follow each other with no summers in between.

All morality would disappear and fights would break out all over the world, signalling the beginning of the end. The wolf Skoll would then devour the sun, and his brother Hati would eat the moon, causing stars to fall out of the sky and the Earth subjected to tremendous earthquakes.

Who is predicting the Viking end times?  Apparently the folks at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York have determined that Ragnarok would occur on 22 February because this is the end of the feast of Jolablot.  Traditionally, the Viking festival of Jolablot marked the end of the winter.

Right now this, winter feels like it might qualify as the “winter of winters,” but the past three summers did indeed arrive, so as prophesies go, this one doesn’t fit very well.  Nevertheless, references to “boundaries crumbling” in the legend are interpreted by some as the rise of the internet. Likewise, the appearance of two oar fish represent the “the Midgard Serpent, named Jormungand, [which] shall free itself from its tail and rise up from the ocean.”  I am sorry, but can’t you do better than that, Jormungand?   Or am I asking too much? At any rate, if you hear Heimdallr blowing the Gjallerhorn, keep your head down. Otherwise have a nice weekend.