Fimbulvetr is the harsh winter that precedes the end of the world and puts an end to all life on Earth. Fimbulvetr is three successive winters where snow comes in from all directions, without any intervening summer. During this time, there will be innumerable wars and brothers will kill brothers.
The event is described primarily in the Poetic Edda. In the poem Vafþrúðnismál, Odin poses the question to Vafþrúðnir as to who of mankind will survive the Fimbulvetr. Vafþrúðnir responds that Líf and Lífþrasir will survive and that they will live in the forest of Hoddmímis holt.
This mythology might be related to the extreme weather events of 535–536 which resulted in a notable drop in temperature across northern Europe. There have also been several popular ideas about whether or not this particular piece of mythology has a connection to the climate change that occurred in the Nordic countries at the end of the Nordic Bronze Age dating from about 650 BC. Before this climate change, the Nordic countries were considerably warmer. In Denmark, Norway, Sweden and other Nordic countries, the term fimbulvinter is still used to refer to an unusually cold and harsh winter
Cassi Creek:
It has been snowing continuously since Friday night. I’ve cleared the decks twice yesterday and three times today. They need to be cleared again. We’ve cleared the cars and they will be covered again by twilight. Given the drifting, minimal, and the compaction caused by gravity and moisture content variation, snowfall depths and rate of snowfall are somewhat tricky to call. Right now, I’d put the snowfall rate at one inch/hour.
The NWS forecasts are falling on the short side of total accumulations. The best guess so far is 8-10 inches with a possible 2-4 yet to arrive. The earliest expected temperatures above freezing are forecast for Thursday.
This is postcard, Currier & Ives weather. Every possible surface, branch, bush that can hold snow is holding snow. When this melts, it’s going to raise the creek level rapidly. The aquifer needs a long snowy cold winter so that run-off is diminished and the melt water can sink in. I hate to be selfish by wishing for the snow pattern to stop. But I am tired of hauling wood and I need a dry, relatively warm period in order to cut, split, and stack more firewood. It needs to happen before the last injections to my shoulders wear off.
There has been a steady stream of birds at Gloria’s feeders all day. This is hard weather for wildlife. It is also hard for people who live at the far ends of the roads. I trudged out to the mailbox this morning, as usual. To find no newspaper. It’s not a very good newspaper but we pay for it, we expect it, and reading a morning newspaper has always been part of our routine. The trek out to the mailbox would have actually benefited from X-C skis or snowshoes. The snow was over my ankles at the most shallow.
We’re having Steak au poivre tonight. Instead of the much more expensive strip steaks or tenderloin that one gets in really good restaurants, we will be using chuck eyes. The primary source of the taste is the sauce rather than the beef. We had snow crab legs last night. We found them on sail. We didn’t bother with melted butter or other sauces. We just steamed them until hot and demolished them.
While I’m tired of shoveling snow, Loki is delighted to go outside in it. She runs, jumps, and pounces for a while then suddenly decides she’s had enough and runs up onto the deck. She takes the stairs at full-tilt and has not yet learned to slow down on slick stairs and landings. She hasn’t slid off the deck yet but I keep watching for it.
If this is the Fimbulvetr, then we need to be aware of Loki’s offspring. Winter is certainly the inspiration for Hel’s domain of the same name and located in Niflheim. Cold and gloom wait for the earth’s orbit to banish them.
Jormungand, or Jörmungand (Old Norse: Jǫrmungandr), or Midgard Serpent (Old Norse: Midgarðsormr), or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki. This beast is credited with causing earthquakes as it moves on the sea floor. Not documented in any geology texts I’ve found yet. There are small earthquakes along the Great Smokies and Tennessee sits against the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
I’ve heard some communal barking and howling from local dogs and transient packs of coyotes. Hardly the Fenris wolf Fenrir or Fenris (Old Norse: "fen-dweller"), Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse: "Fenris wolf"), but sufficient to make one think of wolf packs roaming the forests of Siberia or descending upon the towns of Europe in the long winters.
I’ll take Loki out tonight as usual and I’ll listen for the voice of Fenrisulfr. I suspect that any howls I hear tonight will be of my own creation. Unlike humans and the fictitious spawn of Loki, the wildlife of Cassi Creek will be denned up under the brush and snow of the mountains.
While Loki of old sleeps in pain, chained until the final battle, Loki Dog sleeps soundly by the stove, rising only to bark at things which go bump in the night.
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