All language subtitles for Clash.of.the.Gods.S01E10.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-deadorbit_track3_[eng]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Thor,
Norse god of thunder.

A fearless warrior who
protects his people

from monstrous giants.

He was the idol of Vikings and
barbarians in the darkest age

ever known to man.

But few know the
reality behind his myth.

He battled the ancient world's
most colossal sea monster

and he was the last
hope for Europe's pagans

as they defied the
armies of Christendom.

Fact and fiction collide in
the myth of the mighty Thor.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Two arch enemies
battle to the death.

Thor, the Thunder God,
against a staggering beast.

A giant snake who strikes
with lethal force.

It is man versus monster.

Thor unleashes his
deadliest weapon,

lightning from his magic
hammer as thunder rocks Heaven

and Earth.

The myth of Thor is filled
with these epic showdowns.

Heroic battles against
creatures who threaten mankind.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Thor's the
champion of the gods.

He's the great fighter who can
be brought out when something

is really bad.

You don't go to Thor for wisdom.

You go to Thor because
he's going to protect you

against the evil monsters.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Tales of
Thor's adventures

provided escape from one
of the bleakest periods

in human history, the Dark Ages
of the first Millennium AD.

It was a time when the
Norse world, stretching

from the British Isles to the
Baltic Sea, was in turmoil.

MICHAEL DROUT: It's an
agricultural society where

people were farming
and surviving kind

of at the very edge of how
it was possible to survive,

because it was cold.

It was the northern
part of Europe.

It wasn't around
the Mediterranean

where it was much
easier to grow things.

And it tended to be, from
everything we can tell,

quite violent.

[GRUNTS AND SCREAMS]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: War, famine, and
death were daily facts of life

on the desolate northern
fringes of Europe.

But the myth of Thor brought
a sense of order to the chaos.

[LIGHTNING CRASHING, THUNDER
RUMBLING]

It was a religion
of the countryside.

Paganism actually is a Latin
word that describes that what

the country people believe in.

And paganism is not really
well-organized either.

It's not like the Greek
pantheon in the sense

that it's very well organized
and everybody knows whose

responsibilities and who's
more important than whom.

It's very-- it's very different.

The view of human
life in that mythology

was a fairly dark,
a fairly stern one.

Human beings didn't look
forward to the kind of salvation

and heaven at the end
of time that's promised

in the Christian stories.

They had a kind of a darker,
a more sorrowful view of life.

People have to show great
courage and hardness

in the face of
enormous obstacles.

NARRATOR: For inspiration,
the people looked to Thor.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Thor was the
quintessential hero.

He was strong.

Unlike some of the other
gods, he was not deceptive.

He was not treacherous,
but he was steadfast.

And as this heroic figure, I
think people could identify

with him best.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: In the myth,
two of Thor's weapons

helped him conquer evil
forces, a belt that doubles

his strength, and a
hammer that shoots

lethal bolts of lightning.

No matter how far Thor
throws his trusty hammer,

it will return to
him like a boomerang.

And each time thunder roars, it
means Thor's hammer has struck

a giant.

Thor is the
master of lightning.

And this is not uncommon
in other mythologies.

The obvious parallel here is
Zeus in classical mythology,

who is the thunder god.

The thunder and lightning
god is the protector god.

He's the strongest fighter.

So he has that
capability that Zeus has,

the thunderbolt,
the hammer for Thor

that can destroy the bad guys.

[THUNDER CRASHING]

NARRATOR: Thor's myth
begins with his birth

to two all-powerful parents.

DAVID GEORGE: His father is
Odin, the god of the heavens

and his mother is
Jord, which is Earth.

And so in a sense,
he is of the sky

and of the Earth, which makes
him the perfect god for Middle

Earth, for Midgard
where humans are.

NARRATOR: In Norse
mythology, the world

is made up of three levels,
all represented in a form quite

familiar to the
ancient Norse, a tree.

They used to make housing
that roughly resemble

American tepees.

And the entire view of the
cosmos by the old Norse

was really based on that
construction of housing.

You had a center pole that
would hold up the walls.

They would have been
the skeletal structure

of the house.

They would have been
the skeletal structure

of the cosmos, so the small
representing the large.

That's one of the reasons why
trees become so very important.

NARRATOR: In the mythical
tree's highest branches

is Asgard, the dwelling
place of the gods.

At the opposite end
beneath the roots

is a cool, dark
realm known as Hel.

This is the land of the dead,
and it's from this tradition

that our word "hell" originates.

The middle of the tree
is Midgard, the Earth,

a world inhabited by humans.

This is Thor's domain.

As the warrior
god, it is his duty

to destroy mankind's enemies
in Midgard, the evil giants.

MICHAEL DROUT: The
giants represent chaos.

They represent destruction.

If an avalanche killed
you, if an earthquake got

you or a flood or
something else,

it was the work of a giant.

So they represent all the
things that could go wrong

with a civilization that was
really kind of on the edge

of survival because
of the climate,

because of how dangerous it was.

SCOTT HELLOR: One could
imagine living, for example,

in a valley in Norway and seeing
as winter progressed the frost

coming down from the valley,
sort of the frost giants,

if you will.

And then spring comes,
and one can see that

as being Thor battling
back the frost giants back

up the mountain, and we will
be able to have order restored.

NARRATOR: Today, echoes
of Thor's mythical battles

with the giants
can still be heard

in the forests and frigid
plains that flank the North Sea.

Throughout Scandinavia,
mysterious stone memorials

dot the landscape dating
back to the pagan era.

They were erected between
the 4th and 12th centuries AD

to mark territory,
record important events,

and serve as tombstones
for kings and warriors.

They are called rune stones,
and they are the only clues

left behind by a society that
didn't write down its stories.

On the stones are
runic inscriptions

much like our Latin alphabet.

They sort of describe
a piece of mythology

or a piece of a story that
we sometimes are lucky enough

to have in written form.

NARRATOR: There is one figure
who features prominently

in many of these inscriptions,
the thunder god himself, Thor.

MICHAEL DROUT: There are quite
a number of cases in runestone

where Thor's name is carved in
the ruins with something like,

may Thor bless these ruins.

They wanted his power to somehow
come through and protect them.

NARRATOR: In Norse
myth, each got

battles his own personal enemy
from among the evil giants.

The runestone reveal the
identity of Thor's nemesis,

a giant who takes the form of
a snake, the Midgard serpent.

MICHAEL DROUT: This is a snake
that gets larger and larger,

and it's foretold
that it's gonna

help bring about
the doom of the gods

and the end of the universe.

Snake fear is actually
hardwired into us.

It's cross-cultural.

And the old Norse
picked up on that.

Snakes are bad
and they're scary,

and that's sort of
just the background

that you can then build
good mythology out of.

NARRATOR: According
to the legend,

the Midgard serpent
grows so huge.

It can stretch around the Earth
and envelop the world in chaos.

SCOTT HELLOR: It was the
Midgard serpent that was circled

entirely around Middle Earth
as a symbol of the edge

of the world, but also a
symbol of the danger of going

past that edge.

NARRATOR: This is the
ultimate adversary,

one Thor is determined
to vanquish.

But victory will not come
easy, even for a god.

This ongoing contest between
Thor and the Midgard serpent

really represents the contest
between the-- the force that is

protecting order, protecting the
world of the gods and the world

of men against this ever-present
threat of outside chaos that

always is there to
threaten to destroy us.

NARRATOR: Order versus chaos.

It is a classic theme that
resonated in the harsh Norse

world.

In the myth of Thor, it is often
conveyed with a sense of humor.

In one part of the
story, Thor wants

to get close to the Midgard
serpent without being detected,

so he transforms
himself into a young boy

and asks an ogre named Hymir
to take him fishing at sea.

And they go out deep and deep,
deeper and deeper, and further

and further out, and
further and further out,

and finally, Hymir says, well,
I think this is far enough,

and Thor says, no, no, we
can go further out yet.

NARRATOR: Off the coast, Thor
reveals his true identity

and lures the serpent to the
surface with a head of an ox.

And he throws the entire ox
head with a giant hook in it

over the side.

Well, the Midgard serpent bites
on it and Thor hauls it up.

And so this gigantic
Midgard serpent

is now sticking its
head out of the water.

And Thor is excited about this.

He's thrilled.

He's reaching for his hammer,
like, now, I finally got you.

But Hymir, the giant who's
in the boat, is terrified.

NARRATOR: As Thor raises
his hammer to strike,

the ogre cuts the fishing line,
and the serpent dives back

into the sea.

Thor is enraged.

He has lost a rare chance
to kill his arch enemy.

So Thor keeps having these
encounters with the Midgard

Sometimes he's disguised,
sometimes someone interferes,

serpent.

but in each case, the
serpent gets away,

and that's probably because
the serpent is being saved

in some way or another for
the final battle between Thor

and the Midgard serpent.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: This is
not the only myth

that features a clash
between a thunder

god and a giant serpent.

It is a theme found in every
corner of the ancient world.

In the Hindu Holy
book of Vedas, there

was a fight between
the storm god, Indra,

and a monstrous snake.

And in Greek mythology,
the serpentine beast

named Typhon battled Zeus,
the god of lightning.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

These myths were created
thousands of miles apart

and thousands of years
apart, but they all

tell essentially the same story,
a god of thunder and lightning

out to destroy a serpent
who threatens the world.

But how could so many
different societies

have shared the same myth?

It is likely they emerged
from common experience.

Could the serpent
in these stories

be based on a real sea monster?

And if so, does that
creature still prowl

the depths of our oceans today.

Surprising evidence
suggests it just might.

The Midgard serpent, arch
enemy of all-mighty Thor,

a snake so colossal that can
wrap itself around the planet.

In the myth, it represents
chaos and evil in the world.

But what could have inspired
such a terrifying creature?

Sightings of giant
sea serpents have

been reported for centuries.

In the old Norse sagas,
which are thought

to be based on
real history, there

are even tales of ships
being capsized by the beasts.

JOHN RENNIE: They often
describe a gigantic creature

with long tentacles that could
reach out and snatch down ships

and drag them to the bottom.

This was often referred
to as the Kraken.

NARRATOR: The Kraken was said to
have a long, slithery body that

moved at lightning speed,
just like the Midgard serpent.

But tales of
monstrous sea snakes

aren't limited to
Northern Europe.

They can also be found in
ancient Greece's most famous

adventure story, "The Odyssey."

It describes a massive
serpent with a taste

for human flesh, the Scylla.

Scylla is this terrifying
sea monster with many heads

and many arms who you know
for a fact will grab up

six of your men and eat them.

NARRATOR: Scylla, Kraken,
the Midgard serpent,

are these mythical sea
monsters coincidence

or could they be based
on something real?

A chance discovery
in the 19th century

teased that possibility.

Fishermen in the North
Atlantic encountered

a massive unknown sea creature
and succeeded in capturing it.

The longest tentacle
measured 35 feet.

It was a giant squid.

JOHN RENNIE: The amazing thing
is that nobody had actually

been able to prove the
existence of a giant squid

up until the 1870s when
finally, after countless reports

of these things by sailors who
were never really believed,

finally, dozens of them
washed into the shore

in Newfoundland, proving
that there really

were these amazing creatures.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: 1,000 years earlier,
tales of the sea monsters

terrified Scandinavia's
most rugged seafarer's,

roving bands of marauders who
built an empire by dominating

the waves, the Vikings.

THOMAS FINAN: The
Vikings, the word

Viking itself means
to plunder, to raid.

And so the name that was
applied to these people

refers to the actual act
of what they were doing.

NARRATOR: When the fear
of giant sea creatures

threatened their voyages, the
Vikings looked to one god,

Thor.

THOMAS FINAN: We would have to
imagine the Norsemen getting

into their ships for
plunder in the North Sea

and praying to
Thor for protection

to help guide them to
where they were going.

So Thor took on certain kind of
significance that elevated him

above the other gods in
the eyes of the warriors.

NARRATOR: Viking raiders
performed a special ritual

in Thor's honor to guarantee
their safety on the high seas.

The ritual involved
dismantling a temple dedicated

to Thor and taking the
pillars of the temple

onto the boats with them and
dropping them over the side

into the ocean in order to
show that Thor was dominating

the ocean, that they,
as Thor's servants,

were going to be able
to have safe passage.

NARRATOR: The pillars
cast into the sea

were usually cut from oak trees.

Oak had a special connection
to the thunder god.

It was the wood most
often struck by lightning.

In fact, the central
place to worship for

was not a temple or a church, it
was a tree known as Thor's Oak,

and it was the Mecca of
the ancient Norse world.

HELGA LUTHERS: We are told
that this oak signifies Thor.

They would call upon
that oak maybe even as

if it were Thor himself.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: For
generations, Thor's Oak

was the scene of bloody
pagan sacrifices.

His followers frequently left
offerings of flesh at its base.

Oftentimes, the
sacrifice was in connection

with ensuring that harvest
and agriculture and things

of this nature would be
good for the following year.

During particularly
bad times, it

was claimed that nine of every
animal would be sacrificed.

And sometimes, in
really bad years,

than you would even
sacrifice a human being.

We have enough evidence
that there were sacrifices

or executions associated
with paganism at pagan sites,

and it's no stretch
of the imagination

to think that they would have
taken place at Thor's Oak also.

[MUSIC PLAYING, THUNDER
CRASHING]

NARRATOR: According
to legend, Thor's Oak

stood here in the town of
Fritzlar, Germany until 723 AD.

That was the year
everything changed.

When the forces of another
religion arrived from the south

determined to convert
all nonbelievers.

They set their sights on the
symbolic center of the pagan

world, Thor's Oak.

SCOTT LEONARD: During the
conversion of the Norse,

Saint Boniface came.

He gathered people
together and says,

if Thor exists, if
he's so powerful,

then surely, he'll
strike me down

if I cut down his great tree.

The Christian account says
that a mighty wind then

came and knocked the tree
down, and when people saw this,

they perceived it as a miracle
and they converted on the spot.

NARRATOR: The fall of Thor's
Oak was a symbolic turning point

in Northern Europe.

To the pagan faithful, it was
as if Thor himself was falling.

But it would take far more than
this to make them surrender.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The pagans had their own symbol
to counter the Christian cross,

Thor's magical hammer.

In the myth, Thor uses it to
strike down those who challenge

his authority.

But what if the thunder
god were to lose his most

treasured weapon?

The consequences for
both Thor and mankind

would be devastating.

In the myth, this is
precisely what happen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

For centuries, Thor's hammer
was a symbol of power and pride

in the pagan world.

In the myth, it shoots
lightning and helps

Thor vanquish giant monsters.

The hammer is so important
because it separates humans

from everything else
and it gives power

that you have from tools, power
that you couldn't have with

only your bare hands no
matter how strong they were,

and that's really
important about Thor.

As strong as he is, he
still needs his hammer.

NARRATOR: In one pivotal
story, the thunder god

loses his prized weapon.

Without it, he is powerless
to take on the giants that

threaten the Earth, and
the fate of humankind

hangs in the balance.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In the palace of Valhalla,
sanctuary of the Norse gods,

a ghastly ogre king quietly
invades Thor's bedchamber

and steals his hammer.

The ogre knows that without
it, Thor is helpless,

and he plans to use
it as blackmail.

When his hammer
gets stolen that's

a stripping away of that human
level of culture and technology

that separates you
out from the animals.

SCOTT HELLOR: So Thor wakes
up one morning, gropes around,

discovers that he is
missing his hammer.

So who does he go to first?

Strangely enough,
he goes to Loki.

NARRATOR: Loki is Thor's
servant, but he is also a god.

He is crafty, conniving, and
says he knows exactly who stole

the hammer.

He sets out for the land of
the ogres to get it back.

There, Loki meets with the ogre
king, Thrim, and the king names

his price.

TROY STORFJELL:
And Thrim the giant

says, I have taken Thor's
hammer and I've hidden it,

and no one will find it unless
they give me Freyja as a bride.

Freyja, of course, is this
beautiful, sensuous goddess

of love, fertility, and sex,
and the giants, the dwarves,

everybody wants her.

NARRATOR: Freyja is
also Thor's sister.

When she hears what
the ogre wants,

she refuses to surrender.

But something must be done
to get Thor's hammer back.

Well, his hammer is one
of his identifying features.

His hammer is what he uses
in order to kill the giants.

Without his hammer, the
gods are in trouble,

the people are in trouble.

Everyone's in trouble
without Thor's hammer.

NARRATOR: The gods
called a special meeting

to discuss the crisis.

They agree on a risky strategy,
to dress Thor up as his sister

and send him as
the bride instead.

We'll put the bridal gown
on him, put the veil over him,

and we'll send him down
disguised as Freyja,

and then, perhaps, he can
get the hammer and come back.

Thor is very upset at this.

Thor is the super macho
uber masculine god

and was not about to,
you know, go in drag.

NARRATOR: But Thor
has no other choice.

He gives in and puts on
Freyja's bridal outfit.

Only his red eyes are
visible beneath the veil.

Well, now, this is
very comical, isn't it?

Here, we have the big
macho god who's gonna

now dress in women's clothes.

What exactly is Thor's hammer?

It is the symbol of his
masculinity, and in a sense,

it's also a phallic symbol.

And of course, Thor's now lost
the symbol of his masculinity

and so now, he has to
become the opposite.

He has to become a
woman because he's

no longer able to be a man.

NARRATOR: With Loki
at his side, Thor

heads for the Land
of the Giants.

The thunder god is not
the most radiant bride,

but to get back his
precious hammer,

he must swallow his pride.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Thrim sees them coming
and says, ah, Freyja.

The only thing lacking
in my world is Freyja,

and here she comes.

So the first thing they do
is have a party and Thor

eats all the food.

And then, of course, she
drinks all of the beer.

NARRATOR: Thor's binge
immediately raises suspicions.

How can a blushing
bride be such a drinker?

MICHAEL DROUT: And Loki's,
oh, no, don't worry about it.

The bride just traveled
for eight days and nights

she's really, really thirsty.

NARRATOR: But when Thrim takes a
closer look at his bride to be,

he notices that her
eyes are red and fiery.

Thrim jumps back
and says, what's

going on with Freya's eyes?

And Loki, again,
quick with the answer,

says, oh, well, she hasn't
slept in a week either.

She was so excited to get here.

She so much wanted to get here.

Oh, OK, says Thrim.

NARRATOR: Finally, the
king is convinced and hands

the magic hammer to his bride.

In an instant, the hammer
fully restores Thor's power.

The thunder god is
back with a vengeance.

This is the myth, but
what is the reality?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

As Christian armies
fought their way north

in the first millennium
AD, the Norse

drew inspiration from the
story of Thor's resurgence.

When Christianity was
being forced upon people,

the-- the idea of Thor, the
symbolism of Thor presented

some kind of pagan resistance
movement to the overambitious

attempts to baptize people.

NARRATOR: The Christians had the
upper hand in wealth weapons,

and men, but the pagans were
prepared to fight to the death.

The stage was set.

The battle lines drawn.

The armies of Christ would
take on the followers of Thor

for the souls of
Northern Europe.

The armies of Christ against
the followers of Thor.

The prize, control
of Northern Europe.

This is not a mythical showdown.

It actually happened.

For 300 years, in the Dark
Ages, kings and chieftains

across the continent
collided on the battlefield.

Gradually, the Christians
fought their way north

into pagan Scandinavia.

By the 11th century
AD, the front lines

reached the Swedish
kingdom of Uppsala,

home to some of the last
surviving followers of Thor.

There, every nine years,
the pagan faithful

engaged in a bizarre
and bloody ritual

to honor the thunder god.

TRACEY-ANNE COOPER:
At this time,

both men and animals
were sacrificed to Thor

and their carcasses were
hung up around the temple

and in the trees.

It's quite a-- a grisly ritual.

NARRATOR: In the
late 11th century,

this practice was challenged by
Sweden's new king, a Christian

named Inge the Elder.

When Inge came to power,
most of his subjects

still worshipped Thor.

But he was determined
to change that.

MICHAEL DROUT: He enforced
Christianity and ended

the sacrifice of horses
and other animals

and forbid the pagan rights,
and his people did not

like this very much.

NARRATOR: Among the pagan
holdouts in Inge's kingdom

was his own brother, Blot-Sven.

He seized on the
religious unrest

and made a play for power.

And we see this
clash between them

where we have the Christian
brother trying to impose

Christianity, but
his pagan brother

driving the Christian
brother into exile.

NARRATOR: Initially,
the pagans succeeded.

But a few years later, Inge
regained the upper hand

with a surprise attack
on the pagan temple.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

By force and fire, Thor's
followers were defeated,

and the Christians
claimed Sweden.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Conflicts like this
occurred in kingdoms

throughout Northern Europe.

Today, the scars of these
clashes can still be seen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In the Swedish town of Uppsala,
there is a Christian church

with foundations that date
back to the 11th century,

the same period when King Inge
burned down the pagan temple.

The church may even
have been built directly

over the ashes of that temple
as a symbol of Christianity's

triumph.

People who are used
to going to those places

to celebrate their
old religions will now

come to the same places and
celebrate the new religion.

And that was in line
with what had happened

all across the area when the
conversion to Christianity

came.

NARRATOR: Adjacent to
the Christian church,

there is a series of pagan
burial mounds dating back

to the Dark Ages.

It's believed that
this is the largest

pre-Christian grave
site in Sweden.

Mounds like these can still be
found throughout Scandinavia.

Many have been
excavated, and they often

turn up an unmistakable symbol
of Thor, small hammer amulets.

They were often cast in bronze
and worn around the neck.

These amulets are identifying
markers that either I

still believe in Thor or worn
as sort of a representation

of trying to evoke the
power of these gods

in particular circumstances.

NARRATOR: These artifacts
demonstrate the power

of Thor's myth in the
ancient Norse world.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

To the Norse, Thor's
appeal was in his humanity.

He was a god, but he
also had weaknesses.

He possessed
strength and courage,

but also, uncontrollable rage.

And just like humans,
Thor struggled

with his own limitations.

He's not always the brightest.

He is strong and
brave and courageous,

and he defends mankind,
but he can be deceived.

And usually, the
things that deceive him

are the same things
that deceive us.

NARRATOR: In the myth,
Thor's shortcomings

are revealed in his struggles
with the giants who symbolize

an unconquerable foe,
the wrath of nature.

Nature was very much
a threatening force.

Nature was the thing
that could betray you.

Nature was a thing that
was out to get you.

DAVID GEORGE: So
all of these stories

are meant to show Thor
as the champion of man,

but even in the face of forces
of nature, he will lose.

NARRATOR: In one story, an ogre
king named Utgarda-Loki seeks

to humiliate Thor, so he assigns
him three impossible tasks,

each secretly tied to
the forces of nature.

The first challenge is to
drink a horn full of ale.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

NARRATOR: It seems easy
enough until Thor tries it.

SCOTT LEONARD: And he
drinks with all his might,

and he seems to be barely able
to change the level of the ale

in the horn.

He's very surprised and
bit embarrassed about this.

After all, a god
as lusty is Thor

ought to be able to down
at least one horn of ale.

NARRATOR: The thunder God
has failed his first task,

and the next is even tougher.

Thor is told to lift
the paw of a giant cat.

SCOTT LEONARD: And so Thor
says, oh of course I can.

He's trying to lift this
cat off of the ground.

He can barely get one
paw off of the ground.

Now, this is getting
embarrassing.

If you can't lift a
cat, what is wrong?

NARRATOR: Strike two.

Perhaps Thor is not
so powerful after all.

With his reputation on
the line, the thunder god

faces his final challenge.

He must wrestle a
feeble old woman.

Utgarda-Loki again laughing,
and the other giants laughing

at Thor's discomfiture says,
well, we'll try an easy one,

then.

Here is this old lady.

Can you wrestle an old lady
and beat her in a fight?

NARRATOR: As he prepares to
pounce, Thor is overpowered.

The ogre's plan has worked.

Thor is humiliated.

The king now reveals his secret.

SCOTT LEONARD: Utgarda-Loki
explains what's happened.

Thor, you were
drinking from a horn,

but the horn was
set into the sea

so there was no way you could
drink from the entire sea.

Secondly, I asked you
to pick up my cat.

Well, the cat was
the Midgard serpent.

Who can pick up something
that rings the Earth?

And thirdly, I asked you to
fight with my grandmother.

Well, that wasn't
just my grandmother.

That was old age.

And who can defeat old age?

None of us can.

NARRATOR: Thor flies into a rage
when he discovers the trick,

but the king instantly
vanishes into thin air.

TROY STORFJELL: Utgarda-Loki
used magic to trick Thor.

This story shows the contest
between Thor's brute strength

and the giants'
dark magical powers.

NARRATOR: To the ancient
Norse, this story

demonstrated that even
the gods can't overcome

the awesome power of nature.

According to Norse
belief, Thor would

battle nature's evil ogres
until the end of time.

Then, one final epic clash
would unfold between the forces

of order and chaos.

It would be called Ragnarok,
the Viking Armageddon.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

As Ragnarok's apocalyptic
events unfold,

the entire Earth will
erupt in tremors.

The sun will darken,
and the bitter winter

will grip the Earth
for three full years.

Not only will, you know, fire
begin to consume everything,

but mountains will begin
to fall into the sea.

There will be great earthquakes
and terrible floods.

NARRATOR: Ragnarok
paints a grim picture

of mankind's final fate.

But it isn't entirely unique.

Many cultures
throughout the ages

have predicted a
catastrophic doomsday.

Nostradamus, the ancient
Maya, even the Romans.

And there is one
ancient text that

predicts an eerily similar
end of days, the Bible's

Book of Revelation.

The similarities between
Revelations and Ragnarok

are in the area of weather
phenomena and monsters

rising from the deeps and from
the sky and the destruction

of physical world
and the bringing

together of all the people
who've ever existed,

bringing their souls
together and judging them.

NARRATOR: Ironically, despite
centuries of bloody conflict

between Christians and
pagans, their final prophecies

are intertwined.

But while the Christian and
pagan apocalypse stories

may have similarities,
in one respect,

they are dramatically different.

In Ragnarok, the gods die.

[MUSIC PLAYING]
chapter in Norse mythology.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Ragnarok, the final
chapter in Norse mythology.

It is the ultimate clash
between order and chaos.

Ragnarok is the great
battle between the giants

and the gods, and
really, all the bad guys

and all the good guys.

Everything is
brought into disarray.

Everything is
brought into chaos.

And every god meets his
antithesis and his opposite.

It is a cataclysmic battle.

Everything that would be
normative in the world

will be turned upside down.

NARRATOR: This seismic
clash will culminate

in a long-awaited
showdown, the thunder god

Thor against his arch
nemesis, the Midgard serpent.

Thor's been itching to fight
this Midgard serpent ever

since it was created, and
finally, he gets his chance.

This time, there's
nobody interfering.

It's just straight up mayhem
between the two of them.

The Midgard serpent wraps
its coils around Thor

and it's squeezing
the life out of him,

but Thor has on his belt which
gives him the extra strength,

the power that he needs to
even lift his own hammer,

and so he's able to
break free of the coils.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: After a vicious
back and forth struggle,

Thor lands a fatal blow.

But in a cruel twist of fate, he
is exposed to the lethal venom

that drips from the
serpent's wound.

Thor will pay the ultimate
price for his victory, his life.

So these two arch adversaries
who have been at each other

throughout the mythic cycle
finally destroy each other,

and we have the meeting
of chaos and order

canceling each other out.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: According to the
myth, when Ragnarok unfolds,

the world as we know it will
come to a terrifying end.

All the gods, giants,
and most of mankind

will die along with Thor.

In the aftermath of this,
the only thing that survives

is the world tree.

And within it, a man
and a woman have hidden.

The grass grows again and
they meet on the plane

where Asgard had
been and they set

about creating a new cosmos.

NARRATOR: A Viking Adam and Eve.

Strangely, the end of Norse myth
bears a striking resemblance

to the beginning of the Bible.

But this is more
than a coincidence.

When the Ragnarok myth
was finally written down

in the 13th century,
Christianity was already firmly

rooted in Northern Europe.

To help sway Europe's pagans,
Christian missionaries

made Norse mythology a
prequel to the Old Testament.

The Norse gods die, and
Adam and Eve are born.

DIMITRA FIMI: We
can see Ragnarok

as looking at the end
of the pagan world.

And obviously, after this great
devastating and destructive

event, then a new world can come
and Christianity will arrive.

MICHAEL DROUT: So even though
this is the doom of the gods,

they kind of wipe
the slate clean.

Now, there's a fresh start
in a paradisaical world.

And in this beautiful
world, there's

a chance to start afresh
and to do things properly

and to be good.

This was a way that you
could get the old Norse

as the back story and get it
to mesh with the Christian idea

that there was and Adam and Eve
and a beginning and so forth.

NARRATOR: As Christianity
consumed the Norse world,

the followers of Thor
went underground for good.

SCOTT LEONARD: The
cult of Thor seemed

to fade as the Christian
conversion of the North

began to really take hold.

The conversion
itself took centuries

to really fully penetrate to
everyday custom and belief.

So it was a slow sunset
for Thor's religion.

NARRATOR: Centuries after
the Christian conversion,

Thor's legacy quietly lives on.

The fifth day of the week,
Thursday, is named after him.

It is Thor's day.

And he endures in
popular culture

as a comic book and movie hero.

But centuries ago, Thor was
far more than a footnote

from a lost religion.

He was the divine protector
of the world's most

terrifying warriors.