Jormungandr

The Great Cosmic Serpent

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Jörmungandr: The World-Coiling Midgard Serpent of Norse Mythology

Posted by Sons Of Vikings on November 20, 2020

Source: https://sonsofvikings.com/blogs/history/jormungandr-the-world-coiling-midgard-serpent-of-norse-mythology

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Of all the gods, giants, beasts, and spirits that stalked the Viking mental landscape, Jörmungandr – the world-coiling serpent – remains one of the most renowned. Jörmungandr is also known as the Midgard Serpent because he was a sea monster so large that he wrapped all the way around Midgard (the world of humans). When this gigantic beast stirs, storms, earthquakes, and tidal waves erupt. Jörmungandr lies in the depths of the sea, encircling the earth, holding his own tail in his mouth, waiting for the day of Ragnarok. It is said that when the serpent releases his tail and begins his attack, Ragnarok – the 'final' dark day for the gods – will begin.

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Jörmungandr’s Back Story

While there are a number of different dragons (Old Norse: Dreki) mentioned in Norse mythology, Jörmungandr is the most famous of them all and is regarded as one of the most awe-inspiring forces in nature. However, he makes only rare, brief appearances in the surviving Viking narratives before his starring role in their prophecies of doom. This shows just how much fear and awe the sea-faring Vikings held for this personification of the power of the deep.

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Jörmungandr’s beginnings might not have looked so ominous at first. He was a son of Loki, the shape shifting god of mischief, cunning, betrayal, and trouble. Loki had an adulterous affair with Angrboða, the fearsome witch and giantess (Jötunn or “devourer”) that lived in the Iron Wood. She also bore Loki two other children: Fenrir (the wolf of nightmares) and Hel (the lady of the dead).

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But while this unholy trio was still young, Odin and the gods found them. Odin is the wisest god of all the Viking pantheon, but even he is subject to fate. On that fateful meeting, Odin and the gods did not kill Loki's cursed children but tried to set them aside somewhere where they could not cause harm. So, they sent Hel to the world of the dead. Fenrir, they tried to keep as a pet (unscuccessfully). And the shining, slinking serpent, Jörmungandr was thrown into the sea by Odin. Jörmungandr grew and grew until he encircled the entire earth, eventually meeting up again with his own tail.

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Thor Fishes for the Midgard Serpent

Odin may have been the king of the gods, but for the many Vikings, Thor was typically the favorite. Thor was the mighty god of thunder. He was called "the warder of the earth" and the “friend of humans,” a protector god who was always fair, faithful, and fearless. Indeed, Thor was the opposite of Loki, though they had originally been great friends. One of the most famous stories of Thor is how he went fishing for Jörmungandr.

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The skalds do not always say why Thor was looking for Jörmungandr. The Prose Edda suggests Thor was hoping for a rematch against the serpent. The giant, Utgard-Loki, used magic to make Thor think he was trying to lift a house cat while he was really trying to drag Jörmungandr from the sea. Thor had only pulled one of that "cat's" paws off the floor, after all.

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So he may have realized that the vast power of Jörmungandr was a perfect challenge for the god’s own prodigious strength and valor. Or it may have been that Thor knew that he and Jörmungandr were fated to fight to the death on the last day, and Thor – not the most patient of gods – did not see the point in waiting.

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Whatever the case may be, Thor ended up fishing with Hymir, an anti-social giant of great size and strength himself, who (in some versions of the tale) was also the estranged father of the god Tyr. Hymir rowed his boat far out to sea and immediately caught a brace of whales with his few casts of the line.

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The rough giant boasted to Thor, but the god was carefully baiting his own hook with a head of an ox. Thor cast his line hard, letting the line and bait sink into the deep. It was not long until something bit. Thor had hooked the big one.

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Hymir recoiled in terror as Jörmungandr rose out of the water. The horrifying sea dragon struck at Thor, but Thor kept pulling until – in one version of the tale – the god's feet broke through the bottom of the boat. The ocean churned with tidal waves, and the sky turned black. Thor didn't back down, but as he aimed Mjolnir at the monster's head, the desperate Hymir cut his line.

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Jörmungandr sank back into the depths. His time had not yet come. According to the Prose Edda, Thor was so angry that Hymir had deprived him of his prize that he knocked the giant overboard. Hymir, though, may have just saved the god’s life.

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Jörmungandr and Thor at Ragnarok

The Eddic poem Vǫluspá and other sources all agree Jörmungandr is fated to fight Thor at the end of days. At Ragnarok, the greatest battle ever to be fought, Thor will hammer through walls of giants until he finds Jörmungandr. Thor, the Son of Earth, will battle the lord of the seas. Thor will rain down thunder and lightning as he brings Mjolnir down on the creature’s head again and again. But Jörmungandr is not only the biggest of all serpents - he is also poisonous. Thor will kill Jörmungandr, but the god will take nine steps before falling dead from the dragon’s venom.

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World-coiling Serpents and Tail-chewing Dragons in Other Cultures

Jörmungandr is not the only world-coiling serpent across the thousands of years and hundreds of cultures that color the human imagination. In fact, the image of a tail-swallowing dragon can be found worldwide and throughout history.

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This symbol of the circular snake is called the ouroboros. The earliest known ouroboros depiction is from the grave of Pharaoh Tutankhamen (“King Tut”) from the 13th century B.C. Since that time, similar images have shown up in ancient Chinese, Persian, Hindu, Greek, and even Mesoamerican sites and artifacts. The ouroboros was also prominently featured in the language of mysticism amongst the Gnostics, Hermetic, and alchemists throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

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In most of these settings, the ouroboros signifies time – depicting the living, breathing cycle of ages that have no real beginning and no real end. In Roman sources, the ouroboros symbolized the god Saturn (the Greek Kronos or Cronus, from where we get words like chronology and chronometer).

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Saturn/Kronos was a god of time. He was considered by the Greco-Romans to be especially savage and terrifying. He was lord of the Titans – spirits of elemental chaos that were something like the giants (Jötnar) of Viking lore. In all this imagery, the ouroboros represents the endless cycles of creation and destruction. In fact, many scholars believe that our mathematical symbol for eternity – the sideways figure eight (∞) – is a shorthand adaptation of the ouroboros symbol.

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The ouroboros symbol of a tail-chewing snake is far more innocuous than Jörmungandr - a massive, terrifying, evil beast that Vikings truly believed writhed in the waves waiting to destroy the world and slay the divine protector of humankind.

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However, there are interesting parallels beyond the obvious morphology. Jörmungandr contents himself to sink his poisonous fangs into his own tail while he waits for the end of the world. In many versions of the Ragnarok story, after the world ends, it begins anew. Both good and evil will arise from the ashes of our world, and the cycle (presumably) will repeat itself.

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Experts in the human mind, such as Carl Jung, would point out that the Vikings did not need contact with other traditions to arrive at much the same story. Instead, these are universal human thoughts and fears rendered into images we can better understand.

Danheim - Jörmungandr (Midgard Serpent)

Norse Ambient

Norse Mythology: According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki's three children by Angrboða—the wolf Fenrir, Hel, and Jörmungandr—and tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so large that it was able to surround the earth and grasp its own tail. As a result, it received the name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. When it releases its tail, Ragnarök will begin.

Wodensthrone - Jormungandr

Lyrics

This silent earth tremors

with seemingly sentient purpose

A hatred forged through aeons

with unrequited benevolence

Her divine rage tears the earth asunder

inviting her kin to embrace oblivion

As the wounds they have rent (in her) bleed streams of fiery blood

To burn away the taint of the guilty

And O' how she weeps, as her children choke

And cry for release from the flames of her vengeance

Until the rivers of blood run to the rising seas

Which wash over the carnage to quench the embers of hate

But death is the only release from her terrible wratch

For she knows that they must die...

...like the parasites they are

Silence falls as the waters recede

and the sun beats down upon the still earth

with a newfound sense of hope

All is calm once more

Life slowly reawakens and emerges from the ruins

Blinking into the sunlight of this new dawn

as the earth lies still, mourning

All is calm once more

Pictures Videos Music and Additional Reading

Jörmungandr in the sea during Ragnarök, drawn by the Norwegian illustrator Louis Moe in 1898.

Munknörr - Jörmungandr

In Norse Mythology Jörmungandr is a gigantic serpent that surrounds Midgard.

It is said that Jörmungander fed on what he found in the Midgard Sea, but there came a point when the world serpent was not satisfied and out of desperation he ate himself, causing him to satisfy his hunger by destroying himself but growing bigger, and so he continued until Ragnarök, thus creating the symbol of the serpent eating its tail, the infinite cycle of destruction and creation of the nine worlds (inspiration of the ouroboros).

The Endless Loop: Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent

Source: https://thenorseway.com/blogs/the-norse-way/ouroboros-in-norse-mythology-a-journey-through-life-death-and-rebirth

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At the heart of the Norse Ouroboros symbol is Jörmungandr, the enormous serpent who encircles the world, biting his own tail. According to legend, Jörmungandr is one of the fearsome offspring of Loki, the trickster god, and the giantess Angrboda. His very existence is tied to the fate of the world, as his release during Ragnarök, the apocalyptic final battle, signifies the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

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Jörmungandr’s circular form represents the self-sustaining, ever-repeating nature of life. His tail in his mouth symbolizes the inescapable flow of time, where every end is a new beginning. This mirrors the Norse belief in cyclical time, a concept deeply embedded in their understanding of existence. The cosmos, in Norse mythology, doesn’t simply march forward but loops, much like the Ouroboros, ensuring that all things, even the gods, are subject to birth, death, and rebirth.

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Ouroboros in Norse mythology isn’t just a symbol of eternity, but of the delicate balance between order and chaos. Jörmungandr’s presence creates tension between the two: he both maintains the balance by keeping the seas in check and represents a looming threat, for his rising signals the collapse of cosmic order. This duality is the essence of life itself—constant tension between forces that define existence.

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The Ouroboros and Personal Growth

Ouroboros also speaks to something more intimate: self-reflection and transformation. The act of a serpent eating its own tail suggests a never-ending process of looking inward. Just as the serpent circles back on itself, we too must return to our own origins, our own thoughts and feelings, and confront our innermost truths. Norse culture, while rooted in strength and battle, also valued the journey of the self, recognizing that growth often comes from facing one’s deepest fears and desires.

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The connection between Ouroboros and introspection is further enriched by its relationship to the Norns, the Norse goddesses of fate, who spin the threads of destiny. Like the serpent, these threads loop and intertwine, symbolizing the interwoven paths that each person walks, and how their choices impact the larger web of existence.

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Symbolism in Art: Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and the Web of Life

Ouroboros is often depicted in Norse art alongside Yggdrasil, the mighty World Tree that connects the nine realms of existence. While Ouroboros encircles the world, Yggdrasil holds it up, with roots that reach deep into the underworld and branches that stretch to the heavens. Together, these symbols capture the totality of existence: the serpent represents the cyclical nature of life, while the tree illustrates the interconnectedness of all things.

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In some interpretations, Ouroboros also intertwines with the Norns' spindle—a wheel that represents the twisting and turning of fate. This imagery is a vivid reminder of how life is not a straight line but a complex web of choices, challenges, and transformations. Each loop of the Ouroboros mirrors the twists of the spindle, as we are all bound by fate but still possess the ability to shape our own paths.

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As we reflect on the Ouroboros in Norse mythology, we are reminded of the profound wisdom it offers: Life is cyclical. Each ending marks a new beginning, and every loss paves the way for future growth. In our modern world, where we often seek control and stability, the Ouroboros challenges us to embrace uncertainty and change. It teaches us that we are part of something much larger, a cosmic rhythm that moves through us all.

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In embracing this ancient symbol, we find comfort in the truth that all things are interconnected, and through the endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth, we can discover not only our place in the world but the strength to continue the journey.

Gealdýr - Jörmungandr

It’s a song about the famous story of the God Thor and the giant Hymir who went on a fishing trip and came across the Midgard Serpent Jörmungandr.

Lyrics

Old Norse:

Dró djarfliga dáðrakkr Þórr

orm eitrfáan upp at borði;

hamri kníði háfjall skarar

ofljótt ofan ulfs hnitbróður.

Hraungalkn hlumðu, en hölkn þutu,

fór in forna fold öll saman;

sökkðisk síðan sá fiskr í mar.

Óteitr jötunn, er aftr reru,

svá at ár Hymir ekki mælti,

veifði hann ræði veðrs annars til.

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English translation:

The warder of men, the worm's destroyer,

Fixed on his hook, the head of the ox;

There gaped at the bait, the foe of the gods,

The girdler of all, the earth beneath.

The venomous serpent, swiftly up

To the boat did Thor, the bold one, pull;

With his hammer the loathly, hill of the hair

Of the brother of Fenrir | he smote from above.

The monsters roared, and the rocks resounded,

And all the earth, so old was shaken;

Then sank the fish, in the sea forthwith.