TITLE:
The Ancient Legend about Surt and the Novel Concept of Methane Venting Tectonics (MTV)
AUTHORS:
Nils-Axel Mörner, Ciara Duffy
KEYWORDS:
Nordic Mythology, Surt the Giant of Fire in the Underground, Methane Venting Tectonics, The Fenris Wolf, Ground Shaking, The Ragnarök Apocalypse, The 3000 BP Events
JOURNAL NAME:
Archaeological Discovery,
Vol.8 No.3,
July
16,
2020
ABSTRACT: We merge the concept of methane venting tectonics and the old legend about Surt, the giant of fire, living in the underground and having a burning sword. Due to the tumbling and collisions between blocks thrown up in the air by the explosive methane venting forces, ignition is likely to have set the methane on fire; i.e. huge burning columns of tens to hundreds of metres height. Such events occurred in east-central Sweden at about 3000 BP. The Bronze Age people are likely to have understood it as Surt pushing up his sword of fire from the underground. The legends of Surt, the Fenris Wolf, the Midgårds Serpent and the Ragnarök apocalypse, all seem to owe their origins to the violent geodynamic activity along the east-central part of Sweden at about 3000 BP. We may therefore speak about an ancient “Svenonian mythology”, which precedes the Norse mythology of the Edda by about 2000 years.