Long before Kratos crossed the divide into Norse mythology the people of Scandinavia had prophecies of apocalypse. Stories renowned the world over: Ragnar & his sons, the saga of the Volsunds, The Poetic Edda, all foretell the end of days but what does his mean for Kratos and THE BOY…
With the sequel to Santa Monica’s soft reboot right around the corner, God of War fans have never been hungrier for more info. A few short cinematics, a couple teases of gameplay and the reveal of excellent accessibility features aside, the studio has kept what we are seeing to a minimum causing the hype for its release to skyrocket.
This, like with every other fan base, will lead to widespread speculation about what we might see but the real answer, if the 2018 Game of the Year is anything to go by, may lie in Scandinavian tales as old as time. Now, we have seen Ragnarök revisited numerous times in popular culture: Assassins Creed, Vikings (best show ever), a Netflix series of the same name, even the MCU has had it’s take on the world ending catastrophe. One thing each of these versions have in common is that most of the key events were pulled from “The Poetic Edda”, a collection of Norse poems that were compiled in the late 10th century. These poems told the stories of the Gods that Norse people once fiercely worshipped: Odin the All-father, his wife Freya, Thor God of thunder, Loki the God of mischief, the almost invincible Baldur and many more that we don’t have time to get around to. These poems and stories all end in “The Twilight of the Gods”, otherwise known as Ragnarök. The story is a long one so we will attempt to cover it swiftly here, with the Gods and events relative to Kratos’ story taking precedent, so buckle in, its story time…
Fate spinners foretell a winter harsher than we have ever seen, lasting three times longer than usual, causing famine and death in Midgard. “Brother will kill brother, father will kill son, son will kill father”, sounds right in Kratos’ wheelhouse. Wolves Skall and Hati will devour the sun and the moon, Fenrir will be freed from his bonds devouring the world.Jörmungandr will then rise from the depths and flood the world. The floods will free the nail ship from its moorings and Loki will captain this fabled vessel manned by his fellow giants against the Gods. The conflict will cause the sky to crack, allowing the fire giant Surt and his flaming sword to emerge into Asgard, destroying the Bi-Frost behind him. Despite the prophecy predicting these events once Odin has consulted Mimir he decides to fight as a great battle rages at Vigrid. In the end up, all of the Gods fall. Fenrir, son of Loki, devours Odin who is avenged by his son Vidar. Loki and Heimdall fall to each other as do Freya and Surt. Thor manages to fell the World Serpent Jörmungandr but was poisoned so much during the battle that he dies himself after a mere eight paces. The world darkens and sinks into the ocean until nothing remains. This is the story of Ragnarök.
Now, at first glance you may think, “well none of this happens in God of War so why would they stick to the story here?” and you would be correct. However, the story follows and stays mostly true to many of the stories told of the Norse Gods before the fall.
The first obvious one is the origins of Loki, who we find to be Atreus at the end of the first game. Loki is the product of a giant and a God, both here and in the tales, in lore he is the son of Farbauti and Laufey whereas in the game Kratos and the giant Fey are the boys parents. The giants have always battled the Gods much like the Greek Gods did the Titans in the old trilogy. This makes Baldur showing up at Kratos’ door finally make sense as we discover the son of Odin wasn’t there for Kratos but his wife, the Giant Fey who was living under the Gods noses. Kratos may knock some serious sense into him in that epic first cutscene but much like the Tales, Baldur is seemingly invincible until later on when Loki/Atreus uses his mistletoe arrows to exploit his only weakness. This series of events exactly mirrors the story of Baldur in mythology as Loki sought to kill Odin’s favourite son by gaining the favour of mistletoe, which set in motion his lifelong feud with the gods and seen him imprisoned. So far the lines have been simple enough to connect but this is where it gets a little … weird. In the mythos, both Fenrir and Jörmungandr are BOTH sons of Loki, surely out of the question given he is about ten years old in the game. However, in the first game the World Serpent shows an extremely friendly disposition towards Atreus and Kratos along with his trademark disdain for Thor, never clearer than when he chomps down on the Thunder God’s statue. Fenrir remains a mystery but his heavy featuring in trailers suggests he will play a huge part like I don’t know, MAYBE swallow Odin!? Time will tell if Fenrir likes us as much as our big snake pal but once again the wolf is clearly linked to Kratos and Atreus. Not to mention Skoll and Hati show up alongside the pair as they shoot an arrow that makes the sun disappear… straight from the myths.
So, we have identified what has been straight or loosely pulled from the mythos already, so what tales of the past will the future game hold? Well, we can make an educated guess. Freya and Odin will take exception to the death of their son Baldur, despite his fondness of matricide. Thor will not be happy that your son shanked his son in the neck. These two are a given and basically already confirmed as the drivers of the plot of the sequel but, what can we take from Ragnarök? Well the game already foreshadowed a Jörmungandr vs Thor deathmatch after the statue vandalism, but you know him and Kratos will get some rounds in before that. Now, with Fenrir’s intentions still up in the air a prediction would be jumping the gun but if we are following Ragnarök, he and Odin will do battle. Freya is a bit more of an unknown, it was clear she wasn’t willing to let go of Kratos snapping her sons neck but with Surt yet to show up there is no obvious answer as to how she may die but being the “twilight of the God’s” she likely will. This will realistically leave the Ghost of Sparta and Atreus as the last men standing.
If you know better though, you know God of War is never that rosy and a twist at the end up is inevitable but Ragnarök doesn’t plan for a Greek god showing up in the end times. Will “son kill father” as it is Loki’s destiny to feud with the God’s, the very antithesis of what Kratos believes in at this point. Will Kratos decide the only way to stop these never ending loops of conflict he is so set against is to kill his son with his destiny so clearly linked to the fall of another set of gods? Only time will tell. November can’t come quick enough.
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