Surtr was the great fire-giant of Norse myth — the primordial lord of the burning realm of Muspelheim, who stands guard at the edge of the fiery south with a flaming sword brighter than the sun, and who is fated, at Ragnarök, to lead the forces of fire against the gods and to set the entire world ablaze. He is the end of all things made flesh: the fire that was there before the world and that will consume it at the last.
The Lord of Muspelheim
Surtr (Old Norse Surtr, “the black” or “the swarthy,” from the soot and char of fire) was the ruler and guardian of Muspelheim, the primordial realm of fire that existed at the very dawn of creation, before the world was made. From the meeting of Muspelheim's fire with Niflheim's ice, the first being Ymir was born — so Surtr's realm was present at the beginning of all things. Surtr stands at the frontier of that burning land, an ancient and terrible being, holding a sword that blazes with a light brighter than the sun itself. He has guarded the fiery border since before the gods, waiting through all the ages of the world for the day of its ending.
The Flaming Sword
Surtr's great weapon is his flaming sword, a blade of pure fire that shines more brightly than the sun. With it he will, at the appointed time, become the agent of the world's destruction. The sword is the emblem of his nature: not a warrior's blade but the very fire of destruction given form, the blaze that will sweep across the worlds and reduce them to ash. For all the long ages of the world's existence, Surtr has held this sword at the edge of Muspelheim, waiting.
The Burning of the World
At Ragnarök, the doom of the gods, Surtr's hour comes at last. He leads the sons of Muspell — the fiery host — up out of the burning south to join the giants and monsters in the final assault on the gods. As they ride across the rainbow bridge Bifröst to storm Asgard, the bridge shatters beneath them under the weight of fire. On the great battlefield, Surtr meets the god Frey (who, having given away his own great sword for love, must fight without it), and Surtr cuts him down. And then, when the gods and their enemies have slain one another and the battle is spent, Surtr flings fire across the whole world: his flames engulf the earth, the sea rises, and all the Nine Worlds — the homes of gods, giants, men and the dead alike — are consumed in a final, all-devouring blaze. The world burns and sinks into the sea.
The Fire at the End of the World
Surtr endures as the Norse personification of the destroying fire — the ancient flame-giant who was present at creation and who will preside over the destruction, the bringer of the final conflagration that ends the world. Yet even his fire is not the absolute end: from the ashes and the drowned earth, a new and cleansed world is foretold to rise, green and reborn. Surtr embodies the Norse vision of fire as the great destroyer and purifier — the blaze that consumes the old, corrupt world so that a new one may rise from its ashes.
He has stood at the burning edge of the world since before the gods, sword aflame and brighter than the sun — waiting for the day he will ride out and set all the Nine Worlds ablaze.