Muspell (Old Norse: Múspell; Old High German: Mūspilli; Old Saxon: Mūdspelli, Mūtspelli) is a common Germanic envisioning of the end times. In Norse mythology, Muspell is merely an element of the end times, the apocalypse itself being called Ragnarök. In the Continental Germanic mythology of the Germans and Saxons, however, Muspell referred to the apocalypse itself.
The Old Norse Múspell appears in the 13th-century Prose Edda, where it is of uncertain meaning. Muspelheim (Múspellsheimr, literally "home of Múspell") is the world of fire, at odds with Niflheim, the world of ice; and during Ragnarök (the apocalypse), the fire giants, called the "sons of Múspell" (Múspellz synir or Múspells megir) or "people of Múspell" (Múspellz lȳðir), will break the Bifröst bridge, thus heralding the beginning of Ragnarök.
The word Mūspilli is used in a 9th-century Old High German poem of the same name to mean the end of the world as described in Christian theology. The words Mūdspelli and Mūtspelli are used in the same way in the 9th-century Old Saxon poem Heliand.