It’s easy to imagine a Viking warrior staring at the frozen, jagged peaks of Iceland and thinking, “Yeah, there’s definitely a giant with a flaming sword living under there.” When the Norse people settled in Iceland around 874 AD, they encountered a landscape that was—quite literally—being born from fire. To explain the terrifying beauty of volcanoes and lava, they didn’t have plate tectonics; they had mythology.
There is something deeply primal about standing where the earth’s pulse is visible, a feeling that hasn’t changed since the first longships sighted the smoke of the North Atlantic. If you feel the pull of that ancient “fire-glow” then you’re a part of a long lineage of explorers. You can find that same specific, heart-thumping thrill playing at Vulcan Vegas. If you’re ready to trade the history books for real adventure and fun, then go visit them.
The Raw Power of Muspelheim: More Than Just Heat
In the Viking mind, Muspelheim wasn’t just a “hot place.” It was a realm of pure, unbridled energy. The beings who lived there, the Eldjötnar (Fire Giants), weren’t necessarily “evil” in the way we think of villains today; they were more like forces of nature. They represented the entropy that eventually consumes everything.
Interestingly, the Vikings believed the stars in the night sky were actually stray sparks flying out of Muspelheim. When the sparks hit the cold vacuum of Ginnungagap, they stayed lit, fixed in the heavens. So, for a Viking, every time they looked at the stars, they were looking at the “embers” of the volcano realm.
Surtr’s Sword: The Fissure Eruption
If you’ve ever seen a video of a “fissure eruption” in Iceland—where the ground splits open in a long line and sprays a curtain of fire—you’re looking at what the Vikings likely called Surtr’s Sword.
Surtr isn’t just a guy with a weapon; he is the eruption. In the Poetic Edda, specifically the poem Völuspá, his arrival is described with a terrifying beauty that sounds exactly like a volcanic front moving across the land:
“Surtr moves from the south with the scathe of branches (fire), The sun of the battle-gods (the sword) shines from his sword; The stone-peaks clash, and the troll-wives (giantesses) stumble, The heroes tread the road to Hel, and the heavens are cloven.” — Völuspá, Verse 52
When the poem mentions “stone-peaks clash,” it’s hard not to think of the literal grinding of tectonic plates or the collapsing of a volcanic crater.
The “Fire of the End” as a Cleansing Force
We often think of the end of the world as a bad thing, but the Vikings had a more cyclical view. Yes, Surtr would burn the world, but the fire was also a cleanser.
In the Viking age, the most common way to “reset” a field for farming was a “slash and burn” technique. They understood that fire kills the old growth but leaves the soil rich for the new. This reflected their view of the apocalypse: Surtr’s fire was necessary to wipe away a corrupted world so a green one could rise from the sea.
Here is how the Völuspá describes the final moments of the old world:
“The sun starts to darken, the earth sinks into the sea, The bright stars scatter from the sky; Steam pants aloft and the life-feeder (fire) burns, High flames play against the very sky.” — Völuspá, Verse 57
The “steam pants aloft” is a particularly vivid image—it describes the phreatomagmatic explosions that happen when hot lava hits cold seawater, creating massive plumes of steam.
The Ghost of the Eldgjá Eruption
There is a fascinating theory among historians that these specific verses weren’t just “imagined.” Around 934 AD, a massive volcanic canyon in Iceland called Eldgjá erupted. It was one of the largest eruptions in human history.
The Vikings living there would have seen the sky turn black for months, their livestock die from toxic gases, and the sun turn a “sickly red.” Scholars believe the poets who composed the Völuspá used the memory of this real-life trauma to describe the end of the world. By making the volcano a “Giant” (Surtr), they gave a face to the faceless terror of the earth opening up.
Lava as “Slag” and “Stone-Sweat”
While we use the word “lava,” the Vikings had a more tactile relationship with it. They saw the cooled lava fields—which cover much of Iceland—as the remnants of legendary battles.
- Dimmuborgir (Dark Castles) is a massive area of collapsed lava tubes in Iceland that locals believed was where the gates of Hell were located.
- They often described the rock as “frozen” or “dead” fire.
To a Viking, a volcano wasn’t a “geological feature.” It was a living threshold between our world (Midgard) and the world of primordial fire (Muspelheim). When the volcano erupted, the door had simply been left open.
Featured Photo by Tetiana GRY on Unsplash
