Muspelheim

Múspellsheim (Old Norse, “world of Muspell” — the etymology of muspell is debated; possibly related to Old Saxon mudspelli, “world’s end”) is the southernmost of the Nine Worlds: a realm of eternal fire, dazzling light, and heat that no one who is not native to it can endure. It is one of the two primordial worlds — Niflheim its polar opposite in the north — and its role in Norse cosmology is doubly significant: it was part of the creation, and it will be part of the destruction.

At the beginning

Gylfaginning ch. 4 sets the cosmological scene. Before anything else, Muspelheim existed in the south, “bright and hot, that region glows and burns and is not to be crossed.” Surtr stands at its borders with a flaming sword. The sparks and heat flowing northward from Muspelheim met the ice flowing southward from Niflheim in Ginnungagap, and the meeting place was where Ymir was formed — the first being, from whom all the worlds would be built.

At the end

Völuspá stanzas 51–57 return Surtr to stage center at Ragnarök. He rides from the south with “the foe of branches” — his flaming sword brighter than the sun. The gods meet him and his fire on the plain Vígríðr. Freyr falls to Surtr because he gave away his own magical sword to win Gerðr as his wife. After the battle, Surtr casts fire over all the Nine Worlds; earth sinks into the sea, the sun goes dark.

Vafþrúðnismál stanza 37 adds that “the sons of Muspell” ride to Vígríðr — implying a company of fire-beings, not just Surtr alone.

Muspelheim and balance

In Norse cosmology, Muspelheim and Niflheim are not good and evil forces but complementary primal conditions: fire and ice, the two energies whose interaction creates and eventually ends the current cosmos. Neither is malevolent; both are simply what they are.