Seiðr Loom

creature

Jörmungandr

Loki's serpent son, thrown by Odin into the ocean, where it grew to encircle the whole earth; Thor's great enemy, whom he hooks once and kills at Ragnarök.

Johann Heinrich Fussli-Tor and Jormundgandr
Johann Heinrich Fussli-Tor and Jormundgandr, Henry Fuseli (1790). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, is the second of Loki's three children by the giantess Angrboða Gylfaginning 34. Snorri tells how the gods, warned by prophecy, had the children brought to Odin, who threw the serpent into the sea. There it grew until it lay right round the inhabited world, Miðgarðr, biting its own tail. The poems rarely use its proper name: Bellows's Hymiskviða calls it "the foe of the gods, / The girdler of all the earth beneath" and "the brother of Fenrir" Hymiskviða 23-24.

Thor's enemy

Almost every story about the serpent is a story about Thor. At Útgarða-Loki's hall Thor is challenged to lift a grey cat and manages to raise only one of its feet from the floor Gylfaginning 46; next morning the giant admits the cat was the Midgard Serpent, and that everyone was terrified to see Thor lift it so far Gylfaginning 47.

The famous meeting is the fishing trip with the giant Hymir (see Thor fishes for the World Serpent). In Hymiskviða Thor baits his hook with an ox-head, hauls the serpent to the gunwale and strikes its head with his hammer; the monsters roar, the earth shakes, and "Then sank the fish in the sea forthwith" Hymiskviða 23-25. Snorri's version is more dramatic and less conclusive. Thor braces so hard that his feet go through the bottom of the boat, and he and the serpent glare at each other while it blows venom. Then the terrified Hymir cuts the line. Thor throws his hammer after it, and "men say that he struck off its head against the bottom; but I think it were true to tell thee that the Midgard Serpent yet lives" Gylfaginning 48. The scene was popular well outside the Eddas: Snorri quotes skaldic verses on it Skáldskaparmál 4.

At Ragnarök

When the end comes the serpent rises in fury and the sea floods the land Völuspá 50. Snorri says it blows so much venom that it poisons air and water, and it takes its place beside the wolf Gylfaginning 51. Thor goes against it and kills it, but the venom kills him too:

In anger smites the warder of earth,—Forth from their homes must all men flee;—Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn,And, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks.Völuspá 56

In the new world the surviving gods sit together and talk "Of the terrible girdler of earth" Völuspá 60.

Outside the Eddas

Thor's fishing for the serpent is one of the few Norse myths that can be traced in carved stone as well as in poetry. Scholars widely identify it on picture stones and carvings such as the Altuna runestone in Sweden and a stone at Gosforth in Cumbria, which show a figure fishing from a boat, in some cases with an ox-head as bait.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

he cast the serpent into the deep sea, where he lies about all the land; and this serpent grew so greatly that he lies in the midst of the ocean encompassing all the land, and bites upon his own tail
Gylfaginning 34 Odin casts Loki's son into the sea, where it grows to circle the world.
There gaped at the bait the foe of the gods, The girdler of all the earth beneath.
Hymiskviða 23 In Hymiskviða the serpent takes Thor's ox-head bait.
the giant fumbled for his fish-knife and hacked off Thor's line at the gunwale, and the Serpent sank down into the sea
Gylfaginning 48 Snorri's version of the fishing trip ends with the serpent escaping.
Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn, And, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks.
Völuspá 56 At Ragnarök Thor kills the serpent and dies of its venom.
That cat was not as it appeared to thee: it was the Midgard Serpent
Gylfaginning 47 At Útgarða-Loki's hall Thor unknowingly lifts the serpent disguised as a cat.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Hymiskviða has Thor strike the serpent's head with his hammer (Hymiskviða 24), and Snorri reports a tradition that he struck off its head, but Snorri himself says the serpent still lives (Gylfaginning 48).

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

The Midgard Serpent appears widely in fantasy and games, often simply as 'the World Serpent'; the God of War games (2018, 2022) make it a character. The image of a serpent biting its own tail invites comparison with the ancient ouroboros symbol, a comparison modern writers often make; Snorri gives only the detail itself.

Myths with Jörmungandr

Ragnarök: the doom of the gods The end of the Norse world as told in Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál and Snorri's Gylfaginning: winter and war, the wolf and the serpent loose, the gods killed one by one, and Surtr's fire over the earth. The binding of Fenrir The gods raise Loki's wolf-son Fenrir at home until they fear him, then trick him into a magic fetter made of impossible things. Týr puts his hand in the wolf's mouth as a pledge, and loses it. Thor fishes for the World Serpent Sent to fetch a giant's brewing kettle, Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir, baits his hook with an ox-head and hauls the Midgard Serpent up to the gunwale. The poem Hymiskvíða and Snorri tell it differently, and disagree on how it ended. Thor's journey to Útgarða-Loki Thor travels east with Loki, Þjálfi and Röskva, sleeps in a giant's glove, and loses every contest in the hall of Útgarða-Loki: to fire, to thought, to the sea, to the World Serpent and to old age. Only at parting does he learn he was tricked.

Related

Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Angrboða The giantess in Jötunheim with whom Loki fathered Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel; the sources name her and say almost nothing else. Fenrir The giant wolf fathered by Loki on Angrboða, raised by the gods, bound with the fetter Gleipnir at the cost of Týr's hand, and fated to swallow Odin at Ragnarök. Hel Loki's daughter by Angrboða, half dark and half flesh-coloured, whom Odin cast down to rule the dead in Niflheim; she holds Baldr and sets the price of his return. Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent. Hymir The sea-giant who takes Thor fishing for the Midgard Serpent and owns the great kettle the gods need to brew ale; Hymiskviða makes him Týr's father. Útgarða-Loki The giant king of Útgarðr who beats Thor and his companions in a series of contests by illusion, then admits the truth: they nearly destroyed him. Ragnarök The foretold end of the gods' world: wolves swallow sun and moon, Loki and the monsters break loose, the gods fall in battle, Surtr burns the earth, and a new world rises. Midgard Miðgarðr The world of humans, made by Odin and his brothers from the body of the giant Ymir and fenced with his eyebrows against the giants who live around the ocean's edge.