thumb|Jörmungandr in the sea during [[Ragnarök, drawn by the Norwegian illustrator Louis Moe in 1898.]]

In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr (, see Etymology), 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 his 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 and the jötunn Angrboða. According to the Prose Edda, Odin 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. There the serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail. by some speculated to be a noun, , meaning the "world" (the vastness). The suffix "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 world serpent", "the world river" (a synonym for the sea where he dwells), "the world staff or branch" (a connection to the world tree Yggdrasil), as well as "the world bind" (the serpent's coiling around the world, biting its own tail, symbolising the world's circle of life). 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

thumb|upright|Thor's fishing trip depicted on the [[Altuna Runestone, one of the few confirmed Viking Age depictions of Jörmungandr.]]

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. 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. 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 image on this stone has been dated to the 8th 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. Thor's final battle with Jörmungandr has been identified, with other scenes of Ragnarök, on the Gosforth Cross. 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 ().

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

  • Vikings – Jörmungandr makes an appearance in season six of the History Channel 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).

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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&nbsp;738 4to

Thor and Jörmungandr by Frølich.svg|Thor and Jörmungandr by Lorenz Frølich

</gallery>

See also

  • Apep
  • Bakunawa
  • European dragon
  • Germanic dragon
  • Horned Serpent
  • Lernaean Hydra
  • Leviathan
  • Níðhöggr
  • Oceanus
  • Ophiotaurus
  • Ouroboros
  • Python (mythology)
  • Sea monster
  • Shesha
  • Typhon
  • Vritra

References

Bibliography