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Description
Despite honesty being a really minor character when you actually look at the primary sources, Surtr is one of the most looming presences in all of Norse myth. He is a giant stationed in the primordial realm of fire, Muspelheim, itself an obscure feature of the mythology which isn't explored very much in the original source material. In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, his telling has it that the Universe was once a vast expanse of nothingness called Ginnungagap ("the Yawning Void", which I'm definitely stealing for a band name). On the south end of this expanse was a world of unrelenting fire and searing heat, what we now call Muspelheim. No one seems to have a good answer as to what "Muspel" is supposed to mean. The most common argument I see is that it's a compound word formed from "mundus-spill" (another great band name), which very roughly translates to "world destroyer". It's certainly apt, as it is the fire giants who will march on Asgard at Ragnarök and bring the final destruction at the end of the world. It does get a bit confusing when the giant army is referred to as "Muspell's Sons", with "Muspell" clearly being a proper name here. I assume this is probably just another name for Surtr (who's name just means "blackened", as in like burnt wood or soot) but I haven't seen that specified anywhere, so it could be as yet another otherwise unattended character to add to Norse mythology's playbook.

Snorri specifically identifies Surtr as guarding the borders of Muspelheim from outside threats with the same flaming sword that he'll use to smite the gods during the end of the world. While this backstory is only found in Snorri's works, the actual events he stars in at Ragnarök are backed up by the Völuspá. As the story goes, Surtr marches up from the south of the heavens and scorches everything in his path. Snorri makes this scene a little cooler by having the giants march across the Bifröst bridge which connects the realm of the gods to other worlds, only for it to shatter under the giants' weight and send the combatants tumbling to do battle into the plain below (Snorri calls it "Vígríðr" based on Vafþrúðnismál, while the poem Fáfnismál claims it is an island called Óskópnir). Here, Surtr himself faces off against the god Freyr, and is able to kick his ass because way back in Skírnismál, Freyr gave his sword away to his servant in order to woo the jötunn woman he was pining over. I'm sure there's a dick joke in there somewhere but I've had a five-day work streak so my brain is about as fried as Asgard is gonna be by the end of Ragnarök. Though Surtr's fire engulfs everything, a few survivors are able to hide in various halls and crannies in the World Tree, the destruction thus paving the way for a new world which even the Norns have little to speak of.

Design notes, so everyone and their dog basically just designs Surtr as a big lava monster. Which, okay, fair, but I wanted to take it in a different direction. This is another instance where I feel it's appropriate to elaborate on my personal theology. I'm of the opinion that "Muspell's Sons", assuming this is a synonym for all fire giants, are personifications of the stars in the night sky. In the Prose Edda, Snorri explains that all the twinkling bodies in the sky, from the Sun and Moon to the planets and stars, were originally sparks flung from the original embers of Muspelheim. To me, that lends itself to interpretation as the fire giants themselves being those sparks. It also fits nicely with what we now know about things like supernovae, these existentially enormous cradles of stellar formation cloaked in a cloud of burning gas, though obviously no Viking would've ever had a concept of that. I would again very much like to stress that this is my personal creative decision, you won't find that expressly stated in any of the primary sources (indeed Norse myth is pretty disinterested in the celestial bodies, see my blurb on Sól for more on that), and I haven't seen this touched on in any academic setting, so I'm 100% open to being proven wrong. Rolling with this interpretation, nonetheless, I really wanted to illustrate Surtr as a sort of humanoid nebula with some more solid white-hot parts making up his framework. I wanted to lean more "searing" than "flaming" with this piece. I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with how the overall composition fits with itself, but part of me kinda likes that aspect of it at the same time. That's sort of the idea. He's just this massive thing from the edge of the cosmos capable of clutching the entire solar system in his fist. He's not gonna be bound by anyone's rules of physiology. If I saw this thing descending from the stars, I'd be booking it for the nearest hole in a tree. What? I'm a coward, I'm not afraid to admit that.

Description
Despite honesty being a really minor character when you actually look at the primary sources, Surtr is one of the most looming presences in all of Norse myth. He is a giant stationed in the primordial realm of fire, Muspelheim, itself an obscure feature of the mythology which isn't explored very much in the original source material. In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, his telling has it that the Universe was once a vast expanse of nothingness called Ginnungagap ("the Yawning Void", which I'm definitely stealing for a band name). On the south end of this expanse was a world of unrelenting fire and searing heat, what we now call Muspelheim. No one seems to have a good answer as to what "Muspel" is supposed to mean. The most common argument I see is that it's a compound word formed from "mundus-spill" (another great band name), which very roughly translates to "world destroyer". It's certainly apt, as it is the fire giants who will march on Asgard at Ragnarök and bring the final destruction at the end of the world. It does get a bit confusing when the giant army is referred to as "Muspell's Sons", with "Muspell" clearly being a proper name here. I assume this is probably just another name for Surtr (who's name just means "blackened", as in like burnt wood or soot) but I haven't seen that specified anywhere, so it could be as yet another otherwise unattended character to add to Norse mythology's playbook.

Snorri specifically identifies Surtr as guarding the borders of Muspelheim from outside threats with the same flaming sword that he'll use to smite the gods during the end of the world. While this backstory is only found in Snorri's works, the actual events he stars in at Ragnarök are backed up by the Völuspá. As the story goes, Surtr marches up from the south of the heavens and scorches everything in his path. Snorri makes this scene a little cooler by having the giants march across the Bifröst bridge which connects the realm of the gods to other worlds, only for it to shatter under the giants' weight and send the combatants tumbling to do battle into the plain below (Snorri calls it "Vígríðr" based on Vafþrúðnismál, while the poem Fáfnismál claims it is an island called Óskópnir). Here, Surtr himself faces off against the god Freyr, and is able to kick his ass because way back in Skírnismál, Freyr gave his sword away to his servant in order to woo the jötunn woman he was pining over. I'm sure there's a dick joke in there somewhere but I've had a five-day work streak so my brain is about as fried as Asgard is gonna be by the end of Ragnarök. Though Surtr's fire engulfs everything, a few survivors are able to hide in various halls and crannies in the World Tree, the destruction thus paving the way for a new world which even the Norns have little to speak of.

Design notes, so everyone and their dog basically just designs Surtr as a big lava monster. Which, okay, fair, but I wanted to take it in a different direction. This is another instance where I feel it's appropriate to elaborate on my personal theology. I'm of the opinion that "Muspell's Sons", assuming this is a synonym for all fire giants, are personifications of the stars in the night sky. In the Prose Edda, Snorri explains that all the twinkling bodies in the sky, from the Sun and Moon to the planets and stars, were originally sparks flung from the original embers of Muspelheim. To me, that lends itself to interpretation as the fire giants themselves being those sparks. It also fits nicely with what we now know about things like supernovae, these existentially enormous cradles of stellar formation cloaked in a cloud of burning gas, though obviously no Viking would've ever had a concept of that. I would again very much like to stress that this is my personal creative decision, you won't find that expressly stated in any of the primary sources (indeed Norse myth is pretty disinterested in the celestial bodies, see my blurb on Sól for more on that), and I haven't seen this touched on in any academic setting, so I'm 100% open to being proven wrong. Rolling with this interpretation, nonetheless, I really wanted to illustrate Surtr as a sort of humanoid nebula with some more solid white-hot parts making up his framework. I wanted to lean more "searing" than "flaming" with this piece. I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with how the overall composition fits with itself, but part of me kinda likes that aspect of it at the same time. That's sort of the idea. He's just this massive thing from the edge of the cosmos capable of clutching the entire solar system in his fist. He's not gonna be bound by anyone's rules of physiology. If I saw this thing descending from the stars, I'd be booking it for the nearest hole in a tree. What? I'm a coward, I'm not afraid to admit that.