When Ragnarok comes what are the dwarves up to? What happens to them?
2 Answers
The fate of the dwarves is one of the minor mysteries of Ragnarok. Volupsa doesn't mention them after v. 48, although to be fair it's mainly concerned with the few gods who survive. Snorri is more concerned with humans, as he tells us two will survive and repopulate the earth.
The myths don't tell us what happens to the elves either. More mystery.
The only mention of Dwarves during Ragnarokr I can find is this strange stanza (n°48) from the Völuspá (which can be found as well in the Gylfaginning):
- What's with the Aesir?
What's with the Elf’s?
Resound all Jotun-homes;
Aesir are at the council,
stand the Dwarfs
before the stony door,
rock-wall wise.
Understand ye yet, or what?
This passage was alternatively translated by Henry Adams Bellows the following way:
- How fare the gods? | how fare the elves?
All Jotunheim groans, | the gods are at council;
Loud roar the dwarfs | by the doors of stone,
The masters of the rocks: | would you know yet more?
I'm not sure about what this stanza means but temporally it stands after the one in which Heimdall blows the horn to call everyone for the last battle (stanza 46), but before the one in which Odin is killed by Fenrir (stanza 53).
In the Gylfaginning, another mention of one dwarf (Lit) can be found during Baldr's funeral (Baldr murder being the event from which the Ragnarokr unfolds) but it is frankly even weirder:
Balder's corspe was borne out on the ship; and when his wife, Nanna, daughter of Nep, saw this, her heart was broken with grief and she died. She was borne to the funeral-pile and cast on the fire. Thor stood by and hallowed the pile with Mjolner. Before his feet ran a dwarf, whose name is Lit. Him Thor kicked with his foot and dashed him into the fire, and he, too, was burned.
