The Downfall Of The Gods
In the Eddas, ragnarok, or the downfall of the gods, is the end of the world, a time of wolves, serpents, fire, earthquake, and colossal war. Villy Sorensen has rewritten the mythology of an ancient Nordic world from the perspective of our century, highlighting the personalities and symbolization of the Norse gods to reflect our own crisis of value and belief.
Novel was originally published as RAGNAROK in 1982 in Denmark.
Villy Sørensen
Villy Sorensen (13 January 1929 – 16 December 2001) was a Danish short-story writer, philosopher and literary critic of the Modernist tradition. His fiction was heavily influenced by his philosophical ideas, and he has been compared to Franz Kafka in this regard. He is the most influential and important Danish philosopher since Soren Kierkegaard.
Born in Copenhagen, Sorensen graduated from the Vestre Borgerdydskole in 1947, and then attended the University of Copenhagen and the University of Freiburg studying philosophy. Although he did not graduate, he later received an honorary degree from the University of Copenhagen. Sorensen published his first collection of short stories, Strange Stories in 1953, which many critics have identified as being the start of Danish literary Modernism. He published additional collections of short stories in 1955 and 1964, all winning various awards in Denmark. These stories generally explored the absurd and hidden parts of the human psyche. Sorensen began editing the journal Vindrosen in 1959.