The Great Famine of Loki

At the end of the Second Era, a great famine took hold across the Norselands. No crops were growing and the weather was not allowing for proper farming. Snowy blizzards came out of season and more ferocious than most could remember. Rains, instead of bringing life, brought floods that washed away the topsoil. When the sun was out, it was burning and unforgiving, scorching everything to nothing.
This was caused by the death of the harvest god Baldur. Without his influence to bring the world into a favorable state for farming, the Norselands suffered greatly. The lack of crops led to a great famine and a great drop in population from the Norse. The lack of resources caused raiding and wars of aggression to soar. Many peoples around the Norselands became annexed or killed off and their resources taken to counter the effect of the famine. Seeing as Loki was ultimately responsible for the death of Baldur, this famine was named the Great Famine of Loki.
After years of hardship, nature seemed to balance and the Norselands farms began to grow again. Some speculate that this is do to other pantheons extending their influence in order to try and stem the aggression of the Norse to their lands. Others believe that it was just a natural flow of nature to balance itself after losing the effect of a god's influence. Whatever the truth may be, the Great Famine of Loki only seemed to affect the Norselands.
When the farms came back to fruition, The Third Age had begun and the teachings of High Priest Runar began to spread around the Norselands. This led to the end of the Norse's overt aggression and helped shift focus on reestablish their farmlands and other natural resource harvesting. Some habits die hard, however, and some believe that some of the viking clans that still exist were born from this period.