Long before time had a name, a 7-year-old boy with blonde golden hair, wearing royal silk robes looked into the mirror and found himself excited for his first day of training. 

Now, 1000 years later, he looks into the mirror and finds himself as a mighty hero wearing the most powerful suit of armor with a royal red cape. He holds the title of The God of Thunder and The Protector of the 9 realms. He keeps peering at the mirror holding his mighty hammer, Mjolnir, getting ready to go to war to protect Midgard from The Frost Giants. Before going to war, he looks at his muscular arms and long golden hair and his body which is 7”2 inches tall, and reminds himself never to fail at his task as the fate of the realms depend on him. His father, Odin, was the previous Protector of The Realms and has now retired and passed on his mantle to Thor.  

Everything was going perfectly fine until the present day when Thor is summoned by his father. Odin says, “My son, I was hoping that I would never have to tell you this terrible news however Ragnarök is upon us.” Thor exclaims, “Don’t worry father, whatever or whoever this Ragnarök is I shall not lose to it.” Odin explains, “Ragnarök is the end of the Worlds of Gods and Men and the destruction of the 9 realms altogether. It is said to be caused by 3 world ending monsters, Fenris, Surtur and the strongest of them all, Jormungandr. Fenris is a strong black wolf who is 50 feet tall and can swallow anything whole. Surtur, on the other hand, is a giant monster born from lava and fire. He carries a long sword which has the ability to destroy the foundation of any of the realms and finally, Jormungandr, an undisputed giant sea snake who is 24,000 miles long and can cover the entire earth. He can travel between realms and can eat them whole.” 

Thor is shocked upon hearing the legend of Ragnarök. He begins searching the realms for the monsters and upon reaching the second realm, he finds a huge, dingy cave near the ocean. He goes inside and searches the place for hours but finds nothing. He is just leaving when, out of the blue, in front of him 2 emerald torches light up. He realizes that these aren’t torches, they are eyes! These eyes belong to Fenris. The giant wolf with pitch black fur and glowing green eyes roars loudly. He then picks up Thor and throws him across the cave. Thor gets up and is furious, and lunges toward the wolf. He swings his hammer right at his jaw and breaks some of his teeth. Fenris again throws Thor to the ground and keeps pushing him into the ground until there is a deep 10-feet hole in the floor, with the outline of Thor. Thor manages to escape the wolf’s grip and holds his upper jaw with one hand and his lower jaw with the other. He rips the mouth of his face, killing the terrible wolf. His hands are now soaked with the black blood of the wolf; he flies to the other realms to search for the other demons without wasting a second. 

He goes to the realm of heat hoping to find Surtur. He stands on a rock in front of an ocean of lava and shouts Surtur’s name. The giant demon shows himself before Thor. He is 1,000 feet tall and has a crown of lava, his body is made of fire, metal and lava which lets out a burst of fire, burning Thor. Surtur takes out his sword and is about to swing it to kill Thor but just before he gets any other ideas, Thor takes his mighty hammer and rushes towards Surtur’s head and smashes his hammer against it. Surtur’s crown falls off and he vanishes. It turns out that his power was all in his crown. Now the only way to revive him was to place the crown in The Eternal flame which could revive anybody in the universe. 

Thor, now exhausted, returns home and sees that he could barely see anybody around. Everybody in his kingdom is dejected. He asks what had happened and he gets a reply from one of the peasants. “A giant snake appeared out of nowhere and attacked us. Half our people were poisoned and are now gone”, says the peasant. Thor without wasting any more time rushes to his father and sees that he is laying on his deathbed. His father before taking his last breath, tells Thor to stop Ragnarök by killing Jormungandr. Thor, after watching his father’s soul leave his body and disappear in the misty air through the wind looks at his arm and sees a poison mark. He now finds himself sitting on the top of a mountain. A clear, blue lake with pristine water and numerous populations of fish swimming in there is present in front of him. Tall beautiful trees, nesting birds and countless fruit, within them, near the lake, fill the place with clear, fresh air. He sits and wonders if he can fight Jormungandr despite his fear of snakes. He remembers that there is a wise sage that has the ability to take away fears from people. He spends weeks finding the sage but, in the end, he doesn’t find him. However, he looks back on his journey to find the sage and realizes that he has already killed millions of snakes looking for the sage. He has overcome his fear and with renewed determination, he now goes to find Jormungandr. 

He locates a realm with 99% water and 1% land. As he stands before the almost endless ocean, lightning storms and tornados fill the atmosphere with fear, as the great world devouring serpent, Jormungandr, surfaces from the depths of the ocean. Thor’s face is still as a rock, his nostrils flaring like a dragon. He clutches his fists and clears his head. His face is red as lava and his rage like fire, he charges at the undisputed serpent, looking him straight in his dark soulless eyes. The serpent rushes at Thor but has no luck getting a hit on him as Thor strikes first and hits him straight on the head. Thor then harnesses the lightning around him and electrifies the water which electrocutes Jormungandr. The mighty snake then hits him with blasts of water and gets a hold of him and drags him to the bottom of the ocean. Thor then uses his hammer to strike the serpent and escapes. He then picks up a giant rock and flings it at the serpent. The serpent retorts by releasing 1,000 poisonous spikes off his tail directly at Thor. Thor then musters all his energy and flies towards Jormungandr at full speed, hitting him head on with his lightning charged hammer. The serpent, no match for this attack, sinks to the ocean floor. 

Thor has successfully stopped Ragnarök and saved the Realms and his Kingdom. He lies on the ground letting out a deep sigh. He feels weak and looks to his left finding 2 poisonous spikes in his arm. He didn’t realize it in the heat of the moment but he now accepts his fate happily knowing that he did not fail and the realms are safe now. He now closes his eyes and joins his father in eternal peace…

Author: Rishan Vig (written at the Himalayan Writing Retreat)