Three consecutive winters without summer heralding Ragnarök.
Fimbulvetr is the three long winters that according to the prophecy in Völuspá will precede Ragnarök without any summer between them. Snow falls from all directions, peace is broken, and siblings slay siblings in a time of lawlessness.
The element fimbul is an intensifying prefix meaning mighty or terrible. Fimbulvetr symbolises the collapse of social and cosmic order that precedes the destruction of the world.
Attestations
- Völuspá 41
- The seeress prophesies fimbulvetr and the end of the world.