The Wreck Of The World

My parents invested in an Encyclopedia, little suspecting that they were opening a gateway to other religions, although I would have sought out such gateways in any case. It was a revelation to learn first that the Buddha was not a strange god but a compassionate man and secondly that the Norse gods were doomed to die.

In Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth," Hathawulf tells his great-grandfather (correction made; see comments), the Wanderer:

"'You have worn yourself out for us...If you are of the Anses, then they are not tireless.'" (Time Patrol, p. 442)

This time, instead of denying that he is a god, the time traveler Carl Farness affirms that:

"'They too shall perish in the wreck of the world.'" (ibid.)

When Hathawulf says that that is surely far off in time, Carl replies:

"'World after world has gone down in ruin ere now, my son, and will in the years and thousands of years to come.'" (p. 443)

Carl, from the twentieth century, and a member of the Time Patrol founded in 19352 AD, knows that planetary systems and galaxies come to an end and even that this universe will end. But he also knows that social systems, empires and ways of life are transient and it is probably this that he has in mind when he speaks to Hathawulf. Soon after:

"'...the Volkerwanderung was under way.'" (p. 462)