Jörmungandr in the sea duringRagnarök, drawn by the Norwegian illustratorLouis Moe in 1898.
InNorse mythology,Jörmungandr (Old Norse:Jǫrmungandr,lit.'the Vast 'gand'', seeEtymology), also known as theMidgard Serpent orWorld Serpent (Old Norse:Miðgarðsormr, "worm of Midgard"), is an unfathomably large and monstroussea serpent orworm who dwells in the world sea, encircling the Earth (Midgard) and biting its own tail, an example of anouroboros. 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 ofRagnarök.
Jörmungandr is said to be the middle child of the godLoki and thejötunnAngrboða. According to theProse Edda,Odin took Loki's three children by Angrboða – the wolfFenrir, underworld rulerHel, and the serpent Jörmungandr – and removed them fromAsgard (the world of theÆsir). The serpent Jörmungandr was tossed into the great ocean that encircles Midgard.[1] There the serpent grew so large that he was able to surround theEarth and grasp his own tail.[1] The old Norse thunder god,Thor, has a lengthy feud with Jörmungandr and the serpent is regarded as his archenemy. DuringRagnarök, Thor and Jörmungandr engage in a ferocious battle, culminating in both of their deaths.
The nameJǫrmungandr is a poetic title and consists of the prefixjǫrmun- and the wordgandr. The prefix "jǫrmun-" denotes something huge, vast, or superhuman.[2] 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).[3][4] 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 treeYggdrasil), as well as "the vast bind" (the serpent's coiling around the world, biting its own tail, symbolising the world's circle of life).[3][4]
The major sources for myths about Jörmungandr are theProse Edda, theskaldic poemHúsdrápa, and theEddic poemsHymiskviða andVöluspá. Other sources include the early skaldic poemRagnarsdrápa andkennings in other skaldic poems; for example, inÞórsdrápa,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.
In one story, Thor encounters thejötunn kingÚtgarða-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.[5] If Thor had managed to lift the cat completely from the ground, he would have altered the boundaries of the universe.[6]
Thor's fishing trip depicted on theAltuna Runestone, one of the few confirmedViking Age depictions of Jörmungandr.
Jörmungandr and Thor meet again when Thor goes fishing with the jötunnHymir. 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 blowingatter.[7] Hymir goes pale with fear. As Thor grabs hishammer 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.[7][8] TheEddic poemHymiskviða has a similar ending to the story, but in earlier Scandinavian versions of the myth inskaldic poetry, Thor successfully captures and kills the serpent by striking it on the head.[8][9]
Thor's fishing for Jörmungandr was one of the most popularmotifs inNorse art. Fourpicture stones that are believed to depict the myth are theAltuna Runestone and theArdre VIII image stone in Sweden, theHørdum stone in Denmark, and a stone slab atGosforth, Cumbria by the same sculptor as theGosforth Cross.[10][11][12] Many of these depictions show the giant cutting the fishing line; on the Altuna stone, Thor is alone, implying he successfully killed the serpent.[8] 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.[13] The image on this stone has been dated to the 8th[10] to 10th[14] 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 theProse Edda around the year 1220.[13][9]
As recounted in Snorri'sGylfaginning based on the Eddic poemVöluspá, one sign of the coming ofRagnarök 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.[1] It will advance, spraying poison to fill the air and water, besideFenrir, whose eyes and nostrils blaze with fire and whose gape touches the earth and the sky. They will join the sons ofMuspell to confront the gods on the plain ofVigrid. 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 walkingnine paces, having been poisoned by the serpent's deadly venom.[15] Thor's final battle with Jörmungandr has been identified, with other scenes of Ragnarök, on the Gosforth Cross.[12]
Thor's fishing for Jörmungandr has been taken as one of the similarities between him and the Hindu godIndra, who inVedic mythology slays the dragonVritra,[16][17] and has also been related to a Balto-Slavic motif of the storm god combatting a serpent.[18] 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.[19]John Lindow draws a parallel between Jörmungandr's biting of its own tail and the binding ofFenrir, as part of a recurring theme of thebound monster in Norse mythology, where an enemy of the gods is bound but destined to break free at Ragnarök.[20]
^"Jörmun-".old-icelandic.vercel.app.Archived from the original on 16 November 2022. Retrieved16 November 2022.
^ab"Fornvännen 94"(PDF).Fornvännen. Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research (in Swedish): 61. 1999.Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved16 November 2022.
^Snorri Sturluson (1916)Gylfaginning ch. xlvi, xlvii, pp. 65, 67.
^Thury, Eva M.; Devinney, Margaret K. (2017).Introduction to Mythology (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 302–03.ISBN978-0-19-026298-3.
^abSnorri Sturluson (1916)Gylfaginning ch. xlviii, pp. 68–70.
^abcMeulengracht Sørensen, Preben; Williams, Kirsten (trans.) (1986). "Þorr's Fishing Expedition". InSteinsland, Gro (ed.).Words and Objects: Towards a Dialogue Between Archaeology and History of Religion. Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture; Norwegian University Press. pp. 270–71.ISBN82-00-07751-9.Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben; Williams, Kirsten (trans.) (2002). "Þorr's Fishing Expedition (Hymiskviða)". In Acker, Paul; Larrington, Carolyne (eds.).The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology. London / New York: Routledge. pp. 130–31.ISBN0-8153-1660-7.
^abMeulengracht Sørensen (1986) p. 260, (2002) p. 123.
^Kopár, Lilla (2018) [2016]. "Eddic poetry and the imagery of stone monuments". In Larrington, Carolyne; Quinn, Judy; Schorn, Brittany (eds.).A Handbook to Eddic Poetry: Myths and Legends of Early Scandinavia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 203–08.ISBN978-1-316-50129-0.
^Snorri Sturluson (2016)Gylfaginning ch. li, pp. 78–80.
^Turville-Petre, E. O. G. (1964).Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. History of Religions. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 104.OCLC460550410.
^Dumézil, Georges (1952).Les Dieux des Indo-Européens. Mythes et religions (in French). Vol. 29. Presses universitaires de France. p. 24.OCLC459390464.
^Ivanov, Vjaceslav V.; Toporov, Vladimir N.; Karvovski, A. (trans.) (1970). "Le mythe indo-européen du dieu de l'orage poursuivant le serpent: réconstruction du schéma". In Pouillon, Jean; Maranda, Pierre (eds.).Échanges et communications: mélanges offerts à Claude Lévi-Strauss à l'occasion de son 60ème anniversaire. Studies in general anthropology (in French). Vol. 2. Mouton. pp. 1180–1206.OCLC849278587.
^Meulengracht Sørensen (1986) p. 272, (2002) p. 132.
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