Ragnarokk/Urdarbrønnen

Vilde von Krogh: 

My name is Vilde von Krogh… Actually, can’t I just be Vilde … Yes, my name is Vilde! 

My name comes from an Old Norse name, Alvilde, which actually means ‘female warrior forest elf’. 

And in my life, I often feel that’s what I am! 

So what I’ve done is to allow myself to be inspired once again by ancient myths, with an emphasis on Norse mythology, but also with other stories blended in – and in the books known as the Elder and the Younger Edda, there’s a Norn - she’s the soothsayer, the one who knows everything, who tells the story of how the world was created.  

And part of that is the story of this tree, the World Tree, Yggdrasil. This World Tree has three roots, and next to each root there’s a well.  

And I’ve always been fascinated by the one known as Urðarbrunnr - or the Well of Fate – and again we find three Norns, or wise women. Their names are Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld, which mean ‘What was’, ‘What is’ and ‘What shall be’.  

In my version, Yggdrasil is entirely built of ancient looms. Then there’s the whole transition, to spinning wheels and then to the machine-driven variety. 

Because I’ve thought, what is it that’s brought us to the chaotic state that we’re in today? 

And for me, the Industrial Revolution represents that divide. By that I mean that we allowed our enthusiasm for mechanization to give rise to a kind of optimism that got completely out of hand! 

In a way, it was the precursor to the revolution we find ourselves in now: the digital revolution, which I think has gone completely off the rails too.  

So the story goes that when chaos has gnawed through one of Yggdrasil’s three roots, then the tree will fall. 

That’s what we call Ragnarokk.  

And what I’ve tried to capture is that moment right before the tree falls.