Ragnarok: A picture poem by Louis Moe (1929)

The Seeress tells the god Odin about the doom of gods and men.Baldur the Good is dead and Nanna’s heart is broken.Hyrrokkin flees in fear from Baldur’s pyre flames.Great is the sorrow of the goddesses.

In the primary source, only the arrival of the giantess riding a wolf (Hyrrokkin) is described. Louis Moe changes the narrative by focusing exclusively on her departure.

Describing Graphic Poetry

• When illustrating the myth, does the artist assume that the audience has prior knowledge of the narrative details?

• How does effective bibliography balance the description of object and narrative?

• When digitizing a work like Ragnarok, what kind of metadata – and how much – is needed?