Muspelheim - Realm of Fire

Muspelheim (Old Norse Múspellsheimr, often just Múspell) is the realm of fire in Norse mythology: a bright, hot, burning world in the south, guarded by the giant Surtr with a flaming sword. In Snorri Sturluson’s account its sparks met the ice of Niflheim in Ginnungagap to start creation, and at Ragnarök Surtr’s fire burns the whole world. Modern books count it among the nine realms, and Muspelheim stands at both the beginning and the end of the Norse story of the world.

The more people learn about Norse mythology, the more interesting the stories become. The mythology itself has a wide variety of worlds, realms, characters, and iconic creatures and beings. Throughout the ages, every civilization had their strong beliefs placed into the creatures of the night and beings of light.

To this day, there’s no empirical evidence that all the Gods and giants from Norse mythology ever existed. These stories were spread throughout the centuries, and people carry them in their hearts and minds. The famous Norse mythology universe is no exception. The old poems speak of nine worlds, but no medieval text names all nine, and the familiar list is a modern assembly.

Modern diagrams hang the nine on the branches and roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil, but no medieval source places them there. Snorri’s world is mostly level, and he simply puts Muspell in the south. The list most modern books use is Asgard, Niflheim, Muspelheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Helheim, and Svartalfheim.

The Realm of Fire in Norse Mythology

Muspelheim or Muspell (Old Norse Múspellsheimr or Múspell), better known as the realm of fire, is described most fully by Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning, the first part of his Prose Edda, written around 1220. Snorri says that first of all there was a world in the south called Múspell. It is bright and hot, all flame and burning, and no one can pass through it who is a stranger there and has no home there.

Lava fields and ash-spitting volcanoes are a modern picture. The sources speak of flame, heat and light, and the link to Iceland’s volcanoes is a modern reading, although Icelanders did name Surtsey, the volcanic island that rose from the sea in 1963, after Muspelheim’s guardian Surtr.

Muspelheim appears in the stories of both the creation and the destruction of the world. Snorri also says that Niflheim, the cold world in the north, was made many ages before the earth. In the middle of Niflheim lies the spring Hvergelmir.

Eleven rivers flow from it: Svöl, Gunnthrá, Fjörm, Fimbulthul, Slídr, Hríd, Sylgr, Ylgr, Víd, Leiptr, and Gjöll, which runs nearest the gates of Hel. Snorri then speaks of rivers called Élivágar, which carried a venom. When they had come far from their source, the venom hardened and became ice. He does not say in so many words whether the Élivágar are the same rivers that flow from Hvergelmir.

You might be wondering what ice has to do with the realm of fire. We’ll get to it.

When the ice came to a stop, a drizzle rose from the venom and froze into rime, and the rime built up layer upon layer across the Ginnungagap (a primordial void). The northern part of Ginnungagap, the side facing Niflheim, filled with heavy ice and rime, with drizzle and gusts of wind inside it.

The southern part met the sparks and glowing embers that flew out of Muspelheim. Everything near Muspell was hot and bright, Snorri says, and Ginnungagap itself was as mild as windless air. Where the rime met the warm breath of the heat, it melted and dripped, and from the drops came Ymir, the first being.

The sparks had another use later. After the gods had made the world from Ymir’s body, they took the sparks and embers that flew loose from Muspelheim and set them in the sky to light heaven and earth. Snorri adds that the sun itself was made from a spark that flew out of Muspelheim.

Snorri puts the birth of Ymir this way: life quickened in the drops through the power of the one who sent the heat, and they took the shape of a man. Ymir is the ancestor of the frost giants, who call him by another name, Aurgelmir.

Surtr and the Fire Giants of Muspelheim

Muspelheim has a guardian. Snorri calls him Surtr, a name that means “the black one,” and says he sits at the edge of the land to defend it, holding a flaming sword. No source calls him the king or ruler of Muspelheim; he is its guard.

Surtr is a jötunn, or giant: the name lists preserved with Snorri’s Edda count him among the giants. He has a significant part to play in the destruction of the entire Norse cosmos. If you’re familiar with the prophecy about Ragnarök, the destruction of everything, you’ll realize how large his role is.

The “fire giants” of modern books are not named that way in the sources. Snorri and the poems speak of the sons of Múspell (Múspellssynir) and the people of Múspell, and say little about them beyond the fact that their battle line shines very bright.

Snorri’s account of Ragnarök is detailed. The sky splits, and the sons of Múspell ride out of it with Surtr at their head, with fire burning before and behind him; his sword shines brighter than the sun. As they ride over Bifröst, the bridge breaks. They make for the plain called Vígríðr, a hundred leagues wide each way, where the wolf, the serpent, Loki and the frost giants also gather. Surtr fights the god Freyr, who falls because he had given away his good sword.

In the same end-time Fenrir, the wolf, swallows Allfather Odin, and the wolves that chase the sun and the moon, Hati and Skoll, catch and swallow them. Then, Snorri says, Surtr flings fire over the earth and burns the whole world.

Snorri quotes the poem Völuspá. There Surtr comes from the south with fire, the sun of the gods of the slain shines from his sword, and the sky splits; the people of Múspell come over the sea in a ship that Loki steers; and Freyr goes against Surtr, though the poem does not say how the fight ends. In Vafþrúðnismál the battlefield is Vígríðr, where Surtr and the gods meet, and the fire that ends the world is called Surtr’s fire. When it dies down, the poem says, Víðarr and Váli live in the gods’ sanctuaries. Fáfnismál gives the meeting place another name, the island Óskópnir, and in Lokasenna Loki taunts Freyr that he gave away his sword to win Gymir’s daughter and will not know how to fight when the sons of Múspell ride over Myrkviðr.

One late poem, Fjölsvinnsmál, whose oldest manuscripts date from the 1600s, names Surtr together with Sinmara, a pale giantess who keeps the weapon Lævateinn. Modern writers often make her Surtr’s wife, but the poem does not say so plainly.

What Does the Word Múspell Mean?

No one is sure. Outside Norse, the word turns up in two Christian poems from ninth-century Germany. The Old High German poem Muspilli, named after the word by modern editors, describes the Last Day: the mountains burn, the sky smoulders with flame, the moon falls, and mittilagart (the German form of Midgard) burns, and no kinsman can help another “before the muspilli.” The Old Saxon Heliand, a retelling of the Gospels, says that mutspelli comes in the dark night like a thief. In both poems the word stands for the end of the world or its power.

Scholars still disagree whether Norse poets took the word from Christian German, or whether German and Norse both kept an older word for the end of the world. What its parts originally meant is uncertain too. In Norse the word became a place, the burning world in the south, and a people, the sons of Múspell.

Muspelheim and Modern Hell

In modern Christianity, Hell is depicted as Devil’s home. An evil place filled with fire that serves to burn the sinners through eternity. The current description of Hell gives us reasons to believe that this place is filled with darkness, horrors, and fire while it’s reserved for the dead who sinned during their lifetime.

In Norse mythology, there were several realms that, combined, could resemble today’s Hell. Niflheim was the realm of ice, cold, and darkness. Helheim received those who died of sickness or old age, behind the gates of Hel, while Muspelheim was the realm of fire.

All these realms from Norse cosmos, if put together, could resemble something similar to what we know as Hell today, but the likeness is loose. No source sends the dead to Muspelheim or makes its fire a punishment; Snorri’s places of punishment are Niflhel and Náströnd, the shore of corpses. What Snorri does say is that Muspelheim cannot be crossed by anyone who does not belong there, and no surviving myth tells of anyone visiting it.

Muspelheim in Modern Cinematography

Marvel Studios’ 2017 blockbuster “Thor: Ragnarok” opens in Muspelheim, where Thor, the main protagonist, is held captive by Surtur, as the film spells the name. Surtur is a towering fire demon who means to bring about Ragnarök by joining his crown to Asgard’s Eternal Flame.

Thor breaks free, defeats Surtur and takes the crown from him.

Thor brings the crown back to Odin’s vault in Asgard, believing he has prevented Ragnarök. Then the goddess Hela comes to Asgard to take the throne. At the climax, Thor has Loki drop the crown into the Eternal Flame. Surtur is reborn, destroys Asgard and deals Hela the final blow.

In the movie, Asgard is destroyed and Surtur completes what he was meant to do, though the Asgardians escape on a ship. The myth also goes on after the fire: Snorri says the earth rises again from the sea, green and fair, and a few gods survive.

The movie doesn’t show much of Muspelheim beyond Surtur’s lair in the opening scene. The Prose Edda’s own description is short: bright, hot, flaming and closed to strangers. Even so, it’s not hard to imagine Muspelheim as a place that no one would ever want to visit willingly.

Muspelheim in Video Games

For all of you out there that enjoy playing video games, there’s one game you shouldn’t miss. If you’re into mythologies in general, and if you want to experience Muspelheim first hand, you’ll enjoy this game. The series draws on both Greek and Norse mythology.

The title of the game is GoW (God of War), and it became incredibly popular in the last decade or so. People that have played this game or that are still playing it can experience vast encounters of their main protagonist Kratos with various creatures, Gods, and giants from both mythologies.

Norse mythology was not the base storyline of the game at the beginning. The first games, from 2005 on, were built on Greek myth. With God of War (2018), the makers brought Kratos into the nine realms of the Norse world. That’s where all the fun began for Norse mythology enthusiasts, since they can see the game’s own version of Midgard, Muspelheim, and the other realms.

The adventure starts with Kratos and his son Atreus (later revealed as Loki) in Midgard, but later on, it expands to other realms such as Muspelheim. In the game Muspelheim is an optional realm built around the Trials of Muspelheim, a series of arena combat challenges. Finishing the trials earns rewards and experience on the way to the final goal.

Muspelheim is not where Kratos meets the god Baldur. Baldur is the main villain of the story, a god who cannot feel anything. When that spell is broken, Kratos at first spares him, but Baldur turns on his mother Freya, and Kratos kills him to save her. In the myths Baldr dies very differently, killed with mistletoe by his blind brother Höðr. The sequel, God of War Ragnarök (2022), returns to Muspelheim and brings Surtr himself into the story.

Let’s Extinguish the Story About the Realm of Fire

Considering that Muspelheim, as the realm of fire, is one of the most exciting realms in the Norse universe, it’s no wonder that its guardian is the one who burns the world at the end. Would you visit Muspelheim if you had a chance? Even with mighty Thor carrying Mjölnir by your side, visiting the realm of fire would undoubtedly be an adventure to remember.

Which realms of Norse mythology do you prefer the most, and which ones left a mark on you? Let us know your thoughts about Muspelheim and Surtr as well as everything you know about the sons of Múspell. We encourage all of our readers to share their knowledge with the community. That way, they can fill any gaps about Muspelheim in this article if there are any.

Muspelheim FAQ

What is Muspelheim in Norse mythology?

Muspelheim (Old Norse Múspellsheimr, often just Múspell) is the world of fire in the south. Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda says it existed before anything else, that it is bright and hot, all flame and burning, and that no one can pass through it who does not belong there. Modern books count it as one of the nine realms.

Who rules Muspelheim?

No source names a ruler. Snorri says the giant Surtr, whose name means “the black one,” sits at the edge of the land to defend it, holding a flaming sword. At Ragnarök he rides at the head of the sons of Múspell.

How did Muspelheim help create the world?

In the Prose Edda, sparks and warm air from Muspelheim met the rime from Niflheim in the empty gap Ginnungagap. The rime melted and dripped, and from the drops came Ymir, the first being. Later the gods set the loose sparks from Muspelheim in the sky to light heaven and earth, and Snorri says the sun was made from one of them.

What role does Muspelheim play in Ragnarök?

At Ragnarök the sky splits and the sons of Múspell ride out with Surtr at their head, and the bridge Bifröst breaks under them. On the plain Vígríðr, Surtr fights Freyr, who falls because he had given away his sword. Then Surtr flings fire over the earth and burns the whole world.

Keep exploring: the full map of the Nine Realms of Norse cosmology, the shining realm of Asgard and the shadowy underworld of Helheim, or carry the fire-forged Mjölnir of the gods.