The Allegory of Senua’s Sacrifice, or, what’s up with all the dead bodies?

Hellblade's opening is one of the best video game openings I've ever played, and I think most people reading this would agree. It does a perfect job of setting the scene, the characters, the tone and the feel for the upcoming story. One of the first views we're treated with as soon as the game starts, aside from Senua herself, is a scene of shipwrecks and dead bodies. Like, A LOT of dead bodies. And they never really stop throughout the game, just dead people everywhere. I'm sure we've all asked ourselves at some point in this game, what’s up with all the dead bodies? Let's look at some of the other clues in the environment of the game.

1. Shipwrecks galore, and in general, dilapidated and deteriorated buildings. Remnants of human (or nonhuman) structures, but only small bits scattered here and there. With one notable exception-
2. The wooden mountain. One of the game's most striking visual features and marketing elements, and for good reason. The shape of the wolf's head at the top is usually thought to represent the mythical wolf Sköll eating the sun, one of the events of Ragnarök in Norse mythology.
3. A complete and total lack of living human beings, save for Senua herself.

And a non-environment feature I want to bring up- the lorestones are Senua recounting the tales Druth told her in the past. They often talk about Ragnarök, and the final lorestone? "Senua, prepare yourself for Ragnarök, for it is nigh."

 

The conclusion I draw from this? The story of Hellblade is meant to take place after Ragnarök, in Senua's reality. For her, Ragnarök is when they killed Dillion and burned her village, because that was the end of her world as she knew it. Does that mean that Ragnarök actually occured in-universe? As I've written about before, I think the distinction between Senua's reality and external reality is meaningless in the context of this game. This is Senua's reality, regardless of how it would appear to some "objective viewer," and to her Ragnarök has happened. Senua's gods have died, and she is all that is left.

 

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is not the total "end" of the world, but rather a rebirth. The current world is destroyed, but a new and greater one will take its place. As Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur's translation of the Prose Edda puts it:

Then spake Gangleri: "Shall any of the gods live then, or shall there be then any earth or heaven?" Hárr answered: "In that time the earth shall emerge out of the sea, and shall then be green and fair; then shall the fruits of it be brought forth unsown. ... In the place called Hoddmímir's Holt there shall lie hidden during the Fire of Surtr two of mankind, who are called thus: Líf and Lífthrasir, and for food they shall have the morning-dews. From these folk shall come so numerous an offspring that all the world shall be peopled ... And it may seem wonderful to thee, that the sun shall have borne a daughter not less fair than herself; and the daughter shall then tread in the steps of her mother."

The world after Ragnarök, as painted by Emil Doepler

 

 

When we start the game, the narrator tells us that Senua's story has already come to an end. The story of the game is not the story of Ragnarök, for that has already happened. This is the story of Senua learning to emerge from her Hoddmímir's Holt and find her new, brighter world. She witnessed the death of her entire universe, of her gods and her people and her homeland, and of herself, but that was what it took to move on. She now has a blank slate to build her new life upon, just as Líf and Lífthrasir do.

 

Once again I cannot emphasize enough that it is completely irrelevant whether or not Ragnarök actually "happened" outside of Senua's perception. It is is the story of the Norse gods, but this is Senua's reality, and it is her story. Senua is Hela is Senua.

 

This is my interpretation- what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.