Jormungand - Sea Serpent
Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is the colossal sea serpent of Norse mythology, a child of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. Odin cast it into the ocean that lies around all lands, and it grew until it encircles the world, biting its own tail. It is the sworn enemy of Thor: at Ragnarök Thor kills it and then falls dead from its venom.
The time has come to write about the most prominent serpent in the history of the Norse universe. Of course, we will talk about Jormungand (Old Norse: Jǫrmungandr).
Jormungand was one of the most powerful and savage creatures in the whole Norse mythology. Its name is usually explained as "the vast gandr": jǫrmun- means huge or vast, and gandr is a staff or a magical creature, so "huge monster" is a fair loose translation. Snorri Sturluson also calls it Miðgarðsormr, the Midgard Serpent, and in English it is often called the World Serpent.
The Serpent also plays one of the key roles during Ragnarök, where the Serpent is destined to battle no one other than the God of Thunder himself. But, more on that a bit later.
In this article, we are going to cover everything you might want to know about this famous monster. We will discuss its family, its life, and of course, the three surviving Norse myths in which the Midgard Serpent meets Thor.
So, let us not waste any more time and get started.
Jormungand's Origins
Just like for many other Gods and Creatures in Norse mythology, our fullest sources on the Midgard Serpent are the two Eddas: the Prose Edda, which Snorri Sturluson wrote around 1220, and the Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous poems preserved in an Icelandic manuscript from around 1270.
The main texts for Jormungand are the Eddic poems Völuspá and Hymiskviða, Snorri's Gylfaginning, and verses by earlier poets (skalds) that Snorri quotes in Skáldskaparmál. Among them are stanzas attributed to Bragi Boddason, traditionally counted the oldest skald, one of which already uses the name Jörmungandr, and the Húsdrápa of Úlfr Uggason, composed in Iceland in the late 10th century.
Older still are the carvings. Thor's fishing trip is cut in stone on the Altuna runestone in Uppland, Sweden, from the 11th century, where Thor stands in the boat with his hammer in one hand and an ox head on his line, one foot through the bottom of the boat. The same scene appears on the Gosforth "fishing stone" in Cumbria, England, carved in the Viking settlement there and usually dated to the 10th century, and on the Viking-Age Hørdum stone from Thy in Denmark.
So, unlike many Norse myths, the story of Thor and the serpent can be traced back well before the 13th-century manuscripts.
Jormungandr’s Family
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The Midgard Serpent was one of three children of Loki, the Norse God of trickery and mischief, and the giantess Angrboða. Snorri names the serpent second of the three. Loki's father, Fárbauti, was a giant, so Jormungandr has giant blood on both sides.
The Serpent had two famous siblings: Hel and Fenrir the Wolf. Hel rules the realm of the dead (Snorri says Odin cast her into Niflheim and gave her power over nine worlds), while Fenrir is renowned for two things. Firstly, he bit off the hand of the Norse God of War, Tyr, and secondly, he will kill Odin, the All-father, at Ragnarök.
Snorri says the gods traced prophecies that great harm would come to them from these three siblings, so if you say that Loki's offspring were the harbingers of Ragnarök, you won't be far off.
Jormungand's Prophecy
Now, let's talk about the famous Ragnarök prophecy and Jormungand's role in it.
When the gods learned that Loki's three children were growing up in Jötunheim, the land of the giants, and that great harm was foretold from them, Odin sent the gods to fetch the children. He threw the serpent into the deep sea that lies around all lands. There it grew until it lies in the middle of the ocean around all lands and bites its own tail. That is what its byname refers to: the Midgard Serpent, or in English the World Serpent.
What the serpent will do at the end of the world is told in Völuspá and in Snorri's retelling. When every fetter breaks, the sea surges over the land, because the Midgard Serpent turns in giant fury and comes up onto the shore. In that flood the ship Naglfar comes loose. A popular modern retelling says Ragnarök begins the moment the serpent lets go of its tail; no medieval source says that.
Snorri says Naglfar is made from the uncut nails of dead men, and that the giant Hrymr steers it. Völuspá tells it a little differently: Hrymr comes from the east, a ship sails from the east with the people of Múspell aboard, and Loki, free of his bonds by then, steers it.
Jormungand's sibling, Fenrir the Wolf, will run with his mouth gaping, his lower jaw on the earth and his upper jaw against the sky, with fire burning from his eyes and nostrils. Beside him, the World Serpent will blow so much venom that it spatters all the air and the sea.
Jormungandr's Encounters with Thor
Three surviving myths tell of Jormungandr's encounters with his arch-enemy, the God of Thunder. In Snorri's book the cat comes first and the fishing trip is Thor's revenge for it, but we start with the fishing trip, the best attested of them. Keep on reading as we are going to do a short recap of all of them.
1. The Fishing Trip
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Let us start with a myth known as "The fishing trip." It survives in two main versions, the poem Hymiskviða and Snorri's Gylfaginning, and they disagree on why Thor went and on how the fight ended.
In Hymiskviða, the Gods come to feast with the sea giant Ægir. Thor tells Ægir that he must often hold feasts for the Æsir, and the irritated giant demands a cauldron big enough to brew ale for them all.
None of the gods knows where to find such a cauldron, until Tyr tells Thor that his father, the giant Hymir, who lives east of the river Élivágar at the edge of heaven, owns one a league deep. Thor and Tyr set out together for Hymir's hall.
Hymir has three bulls killed for his guests, and Thor eats two of them on his own before going to bed. The giant grumbles that the next evening they will have to live on what they catch.
Thor offers to row out fishing if Hymir gives him bait. Hymir tells him to fetch his own bait from the herd, so Thor tears the head off a great black ox. Out at sea he wants to row further than Hymir likes, and Hymir hauls up two whales at once.
Then Thor baits his hook with the ox head, and the serpent that encircles all lands gapes at the bait from below. Thor drags the venom-stained serpent up to the side of the boat and strikes its head with his hammer. The rocks roar, the old earth shudders, and then, the poem says, the creature sinks back into the sea.
Back on land, Thor carries the boat and the whales up to the farm, wins one more test of strength by smashing Hymir's prized cup against the giant's own skull, and walks off with the cauldron.
Snorri tells the story as Thor's revenge for being humiliated by Utgarda-Loki (see the next myth). Thor sets out alone, without his goats or chariot, looking like a young lad, and spends the night with Hymir. In the morning Hymir says the boy will be of little use and will freeze out at sea.
For bait, Thor takes Hymir's biggest ox, called Himinhrjóðr, and tears off its head. He rows them past the banks where Hymir usually catches flatfish, and further still, though Hymir warns that it is dangerous to sit so far out because of the Midgard Serpent.
Thor's line is strong and his hook is huge. The serpent bites on the ox head, and the hook catches in the roof of its mouth. It jerks so hard that both of Thor's fists bang against the gunwale. Thor grows angry, summons his divine strength and braces so hard that both his feet go through the boat and he stands on the sea bed. He hauls the serpent up to the side of the boat, and it glares up at him and blows venom.
Hymir goes pale with fear when he sees the serpent and the sea pouring in and out of the boat. Just as Thor lifts his hammer, the giant fumbles for his bait knife and cuts the line, and the serpent sinks into the sea. Thor throws his hammer after it. Snorri adds that some people say Thor struck its head off among the waves, but he himself believes the Midgard Serpent still lives and lies in the encircling sea.
Then Thor punches Hymir by the ear so hard that the giant tumbles overboard, and Thor wades ashore.
So did Thor kill the serpent on the fishing trip? The sources do not agree. Úlfr Uggason's Húsdrápa says Thor struck the serpent's head off against the waves, and a verse by the poet Gamli has Thor smash it with his hammer. Hymiskviða has him strike its head and then lets it sink, and Snorri prefers the version in which it survives, the one that fits Ragnarök.
2. Lifting the Cat
The next myth telling about the encounter of Thor and Jormungand is known as "Lifting the cat."
Once upon a time, Thor and Loki set out in Thor's chariot, drawn by his goats. Their destination was the realm of the giants, Jotunheim. On the way they took on a farmer's two children, Þjálfi and Röskva, as servants, left the goats behind and went on foot.
After a long journey through Jotunheim, they came across a vast castle. The gate was locked, and Thor could not open it, but its bars were so far apart that they could squeeze through between them. They went inside the castle and came across a hall where giants were having a feast.
In the hall they came before a giant called Utgarda-Loki (Old Norse Útgarða-Loki), who was the king of the castle. He recognized his guests and started mocking Thor for his small size.
After a series of challenges that Loki and other members of their party lost, it was time for Thor to fight for the honor of the Gods.
After failing to win a drinking contest, Thor's next challenge was to lift the king's cat, a large grey cat, from the floor. Thor put his hand under its belly and lifted with all his might, but the cat only arched its back, and the most he could do was raise one of its paws off the ground. In a wrestling match with an old woman called Elli, Thor was forced down onto one knee, and then Utgarda-Loki announced that it was enough challenges for one night.
The next morning Thor and Loki were preparing to leave, and Utgarda-Loki was showing them out. Once they exited the castle, the king told them what actually happened the previous night. He told Loki and Thor how he tricked them.
During the drinking contest, the far end of the drinking horn Thor used lay in the ocean, and what he drank out of it is why the sea now has ebb tides. The cat Thor tried to lift was, in fact, Jormungand, the World Serpent. When Thor raised one paw, everyone who saw it was terrified: the serpent that lies around all lands was barely long enough for its head and tail to touch the ground, and Thor had lifted it almost to the sky.
Thor felt so humiliated and angry for being tricked like this, that he wanted to kill Utgarda-Loki on the spot. He took his hammer and turned around to end the king's life, but there was nothing behind him. There was no trace of the castle or Utgarda-Loki, just wide, fair plains. And just like that, Thor was tricked once again. Snorri adds that Thor then resolved to seek a meeting with the Midgard Serpent, which is how the fishing trip came about.
3. Ragnarök
The last clash between Jormungand and Thor comes at Ragnarök, the final battle in which the gods fight the giants, the sons of Múspell and Loki's host.
The serpent does not start Ragnarök. In Snorri's account the signs come first.
It will start with Fimbulvetr, three winters in a row with no summer between them. Then the wolves swallow the sun and the moon, and the earth and mountains shake so hard that trees are torn up by the roots. Every fetter and bond breaks, and Fenrir runs free.
Only then does the sea surge over the land, as the Midgard Serpent turns in giant fury and comes ashore. The armies gather on the plain called Vígríðr, a hundred leagues wide each way: Fenrir, the serpent, Loki with all of Hel's people, the giant Hrymr with the frost giants, and the shining host of Múspell.
Fenrir the Wolf will run with his mouth wide open, and he will swallow even the mighty Odin himself. Meanwhile, the World Serpent spatters the air and the sea with its terrible venom.
In the end, the mighty Thor faces his arch-enemy, Jormungand. Snorri says Thor cannot help Odin against the wolf, because he has his hands full fighting the serpent. Thor kills the serpent, but then he walks nine steps away from it and falls dead to the earth from the venom it has blown on him. Völuspá tells the same in verse: Midgard's defender strikes in fury, and the son of Earth walks nine steps from the serpent before he falls.
Jormungand in Pop-Culture
The tail-biting Midgard Serpent looks like the ouroboros, an ancient symbol from Egypt and the Greek world that shows a dragon or a serpent eating its tail and forming a circle. In those traditions the ouroboros came to stand for an eternal cycle of life and death, or creation and destruction. The Norse sources never call Jörmungandr an ouroboros or give its pose that meaning; they describe a serpent that grew so long it rings the world and grips its own tail. The comparison is modern, but the shape is the same, which is why the symbol can be found on many pieces of ouroboros and serpent jewelry today.
Modern readers also make the link because of how Völuspá ends: after the serpent and the old world are destroyed, the poem lets a new earth rise green from the sea. The serpent itself, though, does not start Ragnarök, and no Norse text treats it as a symbol of renewal.
Finally, can you guess what is one of the most popular Viking Tattoos today?
A serpent biting its own tail is a common choice, and many people who wear it have Jormungand in mind.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that Jormungandr has one of the most influential roles in Norse mythology. Perhaps the Midgard Serpent can even be considered as the most powerful creature in the whole Norse universe. After all, its venom kills the God of Thunder, whom Snorri calls the strongest of all the gods.
In any case, it is time to conclude our story about this magnificent beast. As in the previous articles of this series, feel free to let us know your thoughts about Jormungandr, or if you have an Ouroboros tattoo, feel free to share it. Skål!
Jörmungandr, FAQ
What is Jörmungandr?
Jörmungandr, also called the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is a monstrous sea serpent of Norse mythology. Odin threw it into the deep sea that lies around all lands, and it grew so long that it encircles the world and bites its own tail. At Ragnarök it comes ashore and fights Thor.
Who are Jörmungandr's parents?
Jörmungandr is a child of the trickster god Loki and the giantess Angrboða. Its siblings are the great wolf Fenrir and Hel, ruler of the dead. Snorri Sturluson says the gods foresaw great harm from all three.
Why are Thor and Jörmungandr enemies?
Thor and the Midgard Serpent meet three times. Thor tries to lift it in the shape of a cat in Útgarða-Loki's hall, hooks it while fishing with the giant Hymir, and fights it to the death at Ragnarök.
Did Thor kill Jörmungandr on the fishing trip?
The sources disagree. Úlfr Uggason's Húsdrápa says Thor struck its head off among the waves. In Hymiskviða Thor strikes its head and it sinks back into the sea, and in Snorri's Prose Edda the giant Hymir cuts the line, and Snorri believes the serpent lives on until Ragnarök.
How does Jörmungandr die?
At Ragnarök Thor kills Jörmungandr. He then walks nine steps away from the serpent and falls dead from the venom it has blown on him, so the two enemies destroy each other.
Is Jörmungandr related to Fenrir?
Yes. Jörmungandr, the wolf Fenrir and Hel are all children of Loki and Angrboða, which makes the World Serpent and the great wolf siblings. Both fight against the gods at Ragnarök.
Keep exploring: its sibling Fenrir the Wolf, the dragons of Norse myth, and every Norse mythology creature, or shop serpent & ouroboros jewelry.