Ragnarok

The article is devoted to the study of eschatological scenes from the “Divination of Völuspá” in Anglo-Scandinavian stone sculpture. The main attention is focused on the stylistic analysis of compositional schemes and their background interpretation of how Scandinavian religious ideas transformed in the field of Danish law at the end of the 9th – the first half of the 10th century.

In the current article the author allots a task to observe several plots from Dark Age Scandinavian history using the «new tools» of historian – researching the weather conditions, climate changes and natural cataclysms happened in the past. The main aim is the uncovering of possible connection between wide-known «volcanic winter» of 535–536 A.D., the development of herulic power in Middle Sweden (in the vaster territories later) and the emergence of Ragnarok myth concerned with the mindset changes.