Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, Jörmungandr (, see

Etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

), also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent (, "worm of Midgard"), is an unfathomably large and monstrous sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encircling the Earth ( Midgard) and biting its own tail, an example of an ouroboros. As a result of him surrounding Midgard, the beast is referred to as the World Serpent. Jörmungandr releasing his tail is one of the signs of the beginning of Ragnarök. Jörmungandr is said to be the middle child of the god

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

and the jötunn Angrboða. According to the ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

'',

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

took Loki's three children by Angrboða – the wolf Fenrir, underworld ruler Hel, and the serpent Jörmungandr – and removed them from Asgard (the world of the Æsir). The serpent Jörmungandr was tossed into the great ocean that encircles Midgard.

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

; Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.) (1916). '' The Prose Edda''. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. '' Gylfaginning'' ch.LI , p. 109. There the serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and grasp his own tail. The old Norse thunder god, Thor, has a lengthy feud with Jörmungandr and the serpent is regarded as his archenemy. During Ragnarök, Thor and Jörmungandr engage in a ferocious battle, culminating in both of their deaths.

Etymology

The name ''Jǫrmungandr'' is a poetic title and consists of the prefix ''jǫrmun-'' and the word ''gandr''. The prefix "jǫrmun-" denotes something huge, vast, or superhuman. The word "gandr" can mean a variety of things in Old Norse, but mainly refers to elongated entities and or supernatural beings. Gandr can refer to, among other things: snake, fjord, river, staff, cane, mast, stem, branch, penis, bind, and the like (mainly in a "supernatural" or "living" sense). The term "Jörmungandr" therefore has several possible meanings in connection with its mythology, such as: "the vast serpent", "the vast river" (a synonym for the sea where he dwells), "the vast staff or branch" (a connection to the world tree Yggdrasil), as well as "the vast bind" (the serpent's coiling around the world, biting its own tail, symbolising the world's circle of life).

Sources

The major sources for myths about Jörmungandr are the ''Prose Edda'', the skaldic poem '' Húsdrápa'', and the Eddic poems '' Hymiskviða'' and '' Völuspá''. Other sources include the early skaldic poem '' Ragnarsdrápa'' and kennings in other skaldic poems; for example, in '' Þórsdrápa'', ''faðir lögseims'', "father of the sea-thread", is used as a kenning for Loki. There are also several image stones depicting the story of Thor fishing for Jörmungandr.

Stories

There are three preserved myths detailing Thor's encounters with Jörmungandr:

Lifting the cat

In one story, Thor encounters the jötunn king Útgarða-Loki and has to perform deeds for him, one of which is a challenge of Thor's strength. Útgarða-Loki goads Thor into attempting to lift the World Serpent, disguised by magic as a huge cat. Thor grabs the cat around its midsection but manages to raise the cat only high enough for one of its paws to leave the floor. Útgarða-Loki later explains his deception and that Thor's lifting the cat was an impressive deed, as he had stretched the serpent so that it had almost reached the sky. Many watching became fearful when they saw one paw lift off the ground.Snorri Sturluson (1916) ''Gylfaginning'' ch. xlvi, xlvii, pp. 65, 67. If Thor had managed to lift the cat completely from the ground, he would have altered the boundaries of the universe.

Thor's fishing trip

Jörmungandr and Thor meet again when Thor goes fishing with the jötunn Hymir. When Hymir refuses to provide Thor with bait, Thor strikes the head off Hymir's largest ox to use it. They row to a point where Hymir often sat and caught flatfish and where he drew up two whales. Thor demands to go further out to sea and does so despite Hymir's protest. Thor then prepares a strong line and a large hook and baits it with the ox head, which Jörmungandr bites. Thor pulls the serpent from the water, and the two face one another, Jörmungandr blowing atter. Hymir goes pale with fear. As Thor grabs his

hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

to kill the serpent, the jötunn cuts the line, leaving the serpent to sink beneath the waves and return to its original position encircling the earth.Snorri Sturluson (1916) ''Gylfaginning'' ch. xlviii, pp. 68–70. The Eddic poem '' Hymiskviða'' has a similar ending to the story, but in earlier Scandinavian versions of the myth in skaldic poetry, Thor successfully captures and kills the serpent by striking it on the head. Thor's fishing for Jörmungandr was one of the most popular motifs in Norse art. Four picture stones that are believed to depict the myth are the Altuna Runestone and the Ardre VIII image stone in Sweden, the Hørdum stone in Denmark, and a stone slab at Gosforth, Cumbria by the same sculptor as the Gosforth Cross.Meulengracht Sørensen (1986) p. 260, (2002) p. 123. Many of these depictions show the giant cutting the fishing line; on the Altuna stone, Thor is alone, implying he successfully killed the serpent. The Ardre VIII stone may depict more than one stage in the events: a man entering a house where an ox is standing, two men leaving, one with something on his shoulder, and two men using a spear to fish.Meulengracht Sørensen (1986) p. 269, (2002) p. 130. The image on this stone has been dated to the 8th to 10th century. If the stone is correctly interpreted as a depiction of this myth, it would indicate that the story was preserved essentially unchanged for several centuries prior to the recording of the version in the ''Prose Edda'' around the year 1220.

Ragnarök

As recounted in Snorri's ''Gylfaginning'' based on the Eddic poem '' Völuspá'', one sign of the coming of Ragnarök is the violent unrest of the sea as Jörmungandr releases its tail from its mouth. The sea will flood and the serpent will thrash onto the land. It will advance, spraying poison to fill the air and water, beside Fenrir, whose eyes and nostrils blaze with fire and whose gape touches the earth and the sky. They will join the sons of Muspell to confront the gods on the plain of Vigrid. Here is where the last meeting between the serpent and Thor is predicted to occur. He will eventually kill Jörmungandr but will fall dead after walking nine paces, having been poisoned by the serpent's deadly venom.Snorri Sturluson (2016) ''Gylfaginning'' ch. li, pp. 78–80. Thor's final battle with Jörmungandr has been identified, with other scenes of Ragnarök, on the Gosforth Cross.

Analysis

Thor's fishing for Jörmungandr has been taken as one of the similarities between him and the Hindu god

Indra Indra (; ) is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the Deva (Hinduism), Devas and Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes Indra is the m ...

, who in

Vedic mythology The historical Vedic religion, also called Vedism or Brahmanism, and sometimes ancient Hinduism or Vedic Hinduism, constituted the religious ideas and practices prevalent amongst some of the Indo-Aryan peoples of the northwest Indian subcontin ...

slays the dragon Vritra, and has also been related to a Balto-Slavic motif of the storm god combatting a serpent. An alternative analysis of the episode by Preben Meulengracht Sørensen is that it was a youthful indiscretion on the part of Thor, retold to emphasize the order and balance of the cosmos, in which Jörmungandr played a vital role. John Lindow draws a parallel between Jörmungandr's biting of its own tail and the binding of Fenrir, as part of a recurring theme of the bound monster in Norse mythology, where an enemy of the gods is bound but destined to break free at Ragnarök.

Eponym

Asteroid 471926 Jörmungandr was named after the mythological sea serpent. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 25 September 2018 ().

Popular culture media appearances

Jörmungandr has made a variety of appearances in popculture media. Some notable examples include: *''

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

'' – Jörmungandr makes an appearance in season six of the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

television show Vikings. *'' God of War'' – Jörmungandr is a mainstay character in the video games God of War from 2018 and God of War Ragnarök from 2022. *'' For Honor'' – Worshipers of Jörmungandr, who are also named after it, are a playable character in the video game series For Honor (2017).

Gallery

Thor and Hymir.jpg, Thor fishing for the Midgard Serpent in an illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript Johann Heinrich Fussli-Tor and Jormundgandr.jpg, '' Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent'' (1790) by Henry Fuseli Thor und die Midgardsschlange.jpg, ''Thor and the Midgard Serpent'' (1905) by Emil Doepler The children of Loki by Willy Pogany.png, ''The children of Loki'' (1920) by Willy Pogany Jormungandr.jpg, Jörmungandr rising to the ox head bait, from the 17th-century Icelandic manuscript AM 738 4to Thor and Jörmungandr by Frølich.svg, ''Thor and Jörmungandr'' by Lorenz Frølich

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jormungandr World-bearing animals Creatures in Norse mythology Legendary serpents Germanic mythology Scandinavian legendary creatures Thor Loki Germanic dragons Sea serpents