3 Myth of the end
Ragnarök (the doom of the gods) is the Norse end of the world, clearly echoed in the Christian Armageddon. In Norse mythology, Ragnarök culminates in a final battle between gods and the demons and giants, ending in the death of the gods. The world ends in fire and ice.
It's George RR Martin's "Winter is Coming". The saying in Game of Thrones is House Stark's motto – it is situated in the North of Westeros and often hit hardest by cold winters – but is also a general warning that bad things are going to happen. And Ragnarök is also a popular theme in Scandinavian death metal or Viking Metal, which draws on Norse mythology.
In Ragnarök, the older generation of gods will be destroyed. "There is an inevitability to this," writes Larrington in her book. "Even the warriors in Valhalla can't defeat the cosmic forces. After this mythical end the world will rise again. But the question remains, will it be an improvement on the old?" In her retelling of the myth, Ragnarok: The End of the Gods, author AS Byatt decides that the world is not coming back, while for writer Neil Gaiman in his book Norse Mythology, there are echoes of Animal Farm. The new generation of gods repeat the same moves, and history repeats itself. Ragnarök is both in the future – and in the past.