Viðarr and the End of the World

The image at the top of the east side of the Gosforth cross is an undoubtedly Norse one. Depicted here is the fight of Viðarr against Fenris-wolf. This event takes place during the epic battle of Ragnarök, which leads to the end of the world. We have, maybe, just seen the death of Baldr, the event that gets Ragnarök started. Now as we move up, we see one of the last fights before the world does indeed end.

The image at the top of the east side of the Gosforth cross is an undoubtedly Norse one. Depicted here is the fight of Viðarr against Fenris-wolf. This event takes place during the epic battle of Ragnarök, which leads to the end of the world. We have, maybe, just seen the death of Baldr, the event that gets Ragnarök started. Now as we move up, we see one of the last fights before the world does indeed end.

Fenris has just devoured Odin, the All-Father, but he will now be defeated by Viðarr. As we see it on the cross, Fenris is made up of what looks like enlaced bands. At the bottom, his jaws are gaping wide. Viðarr can be seen at the bottom, his foot on the lower jaw while his hand holds the upper jaw. In the Norse narratives, he is described as then stabbing the heart of the wolf with his sword. Quite bloody, but it is the end of the world after all! Why is this depicted on a Christian symbol? Academics who have studied the cross say that what we see here is the end of the old world, full of non-Christian gods and monsters and wolves, which then makes room for a new, Christian world. Yet the coming together of the two here also allowed those who saw the Cross to know that there was a similarity between these worlds, that they could feel at home in this Christian world and faith, even if it was still a little alien to them.

Tolkien also found himself writing between two different worlds. He loved Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry, but he was also a devout Catholic. How to combine the two? The Gosforth Cross gives us an indication of how he did this in his own work. Bringing together the trees and the end of a supernatural world in favour of a more human-focused, Christian world, he creates the magical realm of Lothlorien, kept safe by the magic of the Elves as long as the evil of Sauron endures. With his defeat, however, magic also departs from Middle-earth alongside the Elves. The new age is one ruled by Men, who must be moral and virtuous, not supernatural beings. While there is tragedy, there is also beauty, just like the Gosforth Cross.