JÖRMUNGANDR (Jǫrmungandr) MIDGARD SERPENT): A FULL EDDIC RUNDOWN OF THE WORLD-ENCIRCLING SERPENT

In the Eddic sources, the World Serpent is most often named in two intricately linked forms:

Jörmungandr (a name carried in the prose tradition and scholarly usage) Jǫrmungandr (Old Norse) and Miðgarðsormr (“Midgard Serpent,” literally the serpent associated with Miðgarðr, the human world)

Snorri’s Gylfaginning explicitly glosses Jörmungandr as “the Midgard Serpent,” making the identity unambiguous in the prose record.

What matters in the Eddic portrayal is not only that the serpent is vast—but that it is structural: it functions as a boundary-force around the human world, and its movements shake the order of things.

That “boundary” concept is not just poetic mood; it is stated as geometry: Snorri describes the Midgard Serpent as lying “about all the land,” and says that its length “scarcely… suffice[s] to encompass the earth with head and tail.”

So, from the start, the Eddic emphasis is clear: the serpent’s size is cosmic, its position is liminal (the sea around the inhabited world), and its relationship to Thor is fated conflict.

 LINEAGE: LOKI, ANGRBOÐA, AND THE SIBLINGS WHO MIRROR THE END

In Gylfaginning, the serpent’s origin is placed in a single stark family statement: Loki fathers three children with Angrboða in Jötunheim: Fenris-Wolf (Fenrir), Jörmungandr (the Midgard Serpent), and Hel.

This triad is not random. Each sibling becomes a pillar of collapse:

Fenrir breaks bonds and devours the All father yet he is avenged by Víðarr.

Odin gives Hel the domain of the dead and she holds the dead; the serpent rises from the sea and poisons air and water at the end.

Snorri says the gods learn by prophecy that “great misfortune” will come from this kin-line, and the response is direct: the children are taken from where they are being raised yet that does not change fate.

ODIN’S CHOICE: CASTING THE SERPENT INTO THE WORLD-SEA

The Gylfaginning account makes the placement of the Midgard Serpent an intentional act of governance: the serpent is placed in the sea by Odin where it must become what it is.

“He threw the serpent into the deep sea that encircles all lands; but the serpent grew so large that it encircled all the world and bit its own tail.” — Gylfaginning, ch. 34

While the passage establishes parentage and divine concern, the later narrative reveals the serpent’s final role: it dwells in the encompassing sea and is so vast that the earth can barely be ringed by its body.

THE ÚTGARÐA-LOKI CONTEST: THOR MEETS THE SERPENT IN DISGUISE

In the Eddic record, this is told in Snorri’s Gylfaginning as part of Thor’s encounter with Útgarða-Loki.

After the contests, Útgarða-Loki reveals what truly happened:

The Drinking Horn Was the Sea (and Thor’s Draught Becomes Tides)

Útgarða-Loki explains that the far end of the horn was out in the sea, and Thor’s drinking caused a measurable lowering—named thereafter as “ebb-tides.”

This matters because it ties Thor’s contest not to tavern trickery, but to oceanic reality: Thor’s strength is shown as a force capable of altering the sea itself.

The Cat Was the Midgard Serpent

The “cat-lifting” is the serpent encounter, veiled:  Útgarða-Loki says the cat “was the Midgard Serpent,” the one that “lies about all the land,” and Thor lifted one paw from the earth—stretching it so high that it was “but a little way more to heaven.”

This is one of the most revealing Eddic moments about the serpent’s role: Jörmungandr is not merely an enemy to be slain.

Thor lifts Jörmungandr, disguised as a cat. Lorenz Frølich

It is a measure of the world’s boundary, so integral that lifting it threatens the world’s frame.

And Thor’s near success becomes a warning: a full lifting would have altered the universe’s limits.

THOR’S FISHING TRIP: THE HIGH POINT OF DIRECT CONFRONTATION

The Poetic Edda: Hymiskviða (The Lay of Hymir)

In Hymiskviða, Thor goes fishing with Hymir, and the serpent is named in powerful epithets. Thor is called the “worm’s destroyer,” and the serpent is described as the “girdler of all men.”

The scene is built like a ritual of confrontation: a hook, bait that draws the world-serpent, the hauling up from deep water, and the moment of fear when the boundary-creature breaches the surface.

Even the poem’s phrasing leans into cosmic scale: the serpent is not merely “a sea-monster,” but the one that encircles—a living ring around the inhabited world.

Jörmungandr rising to the ox head bait, from the 17th-century Icelandic manuscript AM 738 4to

Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent (1790) by Henry Fuseli

Snorri’s Gylfaginning: The Same Event, More Narrative Detail

Snorri explicitly frames the fishing trip as Thor seeking redress after being deceived by Útgarða-Loki, resolving to bring about a meeting with the Midgard Serpent.

Then the fishing story unfolds: Thor comes to the giant Hymir “in the guise of a young lad.”

“Þá kómu þeir at jǫtuns hǫllu,

egir ok ása sunr in aldna sá.”

“They came to the hall of the giant, / the old one saw them, the son of the Æsir looked like a lad.”

Thor takes the largest of Hymir’s oxen and rips off its head for bait.

Thor insists on rowing farther out, despite Hymir’s fear “because of the Midgard Serpent.”

The serpent bites; the hook catches; the serpent bolts; Thor braces with such force that he drives his feet through the boat and down to the bottom.

Thor and the serpent lock into a dreadful gaze; the serpent blows venom; Hymir goes pale with terror as the sea surges in the boat. Hymir cuts the line; the serpent sinks; Thor hurls the hammer after it.

“And men say that then Thor threw the hammer after it, and they did not know whether he struck it or not.” — Prose Edda, Gylfaginning

Snorri does record a tradition or say that Thor struck the serpent on the head.

But then he adds his own rationalization or interpretation:

“But it is my belief that the Midgard Serpent still lives and lies in the ocean encompassing all lands.” — Gylfaginning

This is a rare moment where Snorri openly acknowledges variant understandings (“men say…” vs. his own “I think it were true…”).

For a careful reader, that is a signal: this confrontation existed in multiple tellings, and Snorri is threading a path through them.

RAGNARÖK: WHEN THE SEA-BOUND BOUNDARY CREATURE RISES

The end-time role of Jörmungandr appears with thunderous clarity in both the Poetic Edda’s Völuspá and Snorri’s Gylfaginning.

The Serpent’s Motion Brings Flood

Snorri says the sea gushes over the land because the Midgard Serpent “stirs in giant wrath and advances up onto the land.”

This is not a decorative detail—it makes the serpent’s body a lever on the world: its turning is a physical catastrophe, its rising is the loss of boundary, the sea becomes invasion.

Venom in Air and Water

Snorri continues: the Midgard Serpent “shall blow venom” and “sprinkle all the air and water.” So, in the Eddic end, the serpent is not only a combatant; it is an environmental undoing.

VÖLUSPÁ: THE WORLD SERPENT IN THE BATTLE-POEM OF THE END

In Völuspá, the serpent’s presence is rendered as terror in motion:

The “monstrous Beast” twists in wrath; the “Snake beats the waves.”

Then comes the central moment: “Hlódyn’s glorious son” (Thor) comes, unafraid, against the serpent.

Thor strikes in fury; people flee; then the final exchange: Thor slays the serpent, but after nine paces he falls— “slain by the serpent,” brought down by venom in the wake of victory.

That “nine paces” is one of the most haunting measured lines in the Eddic record: not “immediately,” not “safely after,” but a counted distance—like fate allowing the hero a final walk before the poison claims him.

After the Burning: Remembering the Girdler of Earth

One of the most easily missed but most spiritually weighty references is what comes after the world’s burning.

Snorri: The Survivors Speak of the Serpent

In the renewed world, surviving gods “hold speech” and “call to mind” what has been—explicitly including “the Midgard Serpent and… Fenris-Wolf.”

The serpent is remembered as a defining event of the cosmos, not erased, not forgotten, but spoken of among those who remain.

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

VÖLUSPÁ: THE “TERRIBLE GIRDLER OF EARTH” IN MEMORY

In Völuspá, the renewed world includes the gods speaking of ancient events, and the poem names among the remembered terrors “the terrible girdler of earth.”

This reinforces a key Eddic theme: the end is not mere annihilation—it is reckoning and remembrance.

“And then shall be found in the grass those golden tablets which the Æsir had possessed...”

“Then shall Baldr and Höðr come from Hel. They shall dwell in Iðavöllr…”

“…they shall talk and call to mind their hidden lore and the Midgard Serpent and of the ancient runes.”

— Gylfaginning, ch. 53

Skáldskaparmál: The Serpent in Poetic Language and Older Verse Echoes

Snorri’s Skáldskaparmál is a treasury of poetic diction and preserved skaldic fragments. It matters for Jörmungandr because it shows how deeply the serpent was woven into poetic reference—especially in kennings about Thor.

One striking fragment (attributed within the tradition Snorri preserves) describes Thor as the one who smote “the glittering Serpent’s head off.”

Whatever one concludes about variant endings (serpent slain vs. serpent surviving), what this demonstrates is simple and powerful:

Thor-versus-Serpent was not a minor tale; it was a central poetic reference-point across generations of verse.

Skáldskaparmál also contains lists and naming material (including Loki’s kin) that reinforce how commonly these figures were invoked in poetic speech.

Consolidated Index: “Where in the Eddas do I find Jörmungandr?”

Poetic Edda

Hymiskviða: Thor fishes up the serpent; epithets like “girdler of all men.”

Völuspá: the serpent’s end-time rising; Thor’s duel; nine paces; post-burning memory of the “girdler of earth.”

Prose Edda (Gylfaginning)

Ch. XXXIV: Loki + Angrboða; Jörmungandr named as Midgard Serpent; siblings Fenrir and Hel.

Útgarða-Loki episode: the cat is the Midgard Serpent; the horn is tied to the sea and tides.

Ch. XLVIII: Thor seeks the meeting; the fishing expedition with Hymir; venom; line cut; hammer thrown; discussion of whether the serpent lives.

Ragnarök section: serpent stirs the sea onto land; blows venom into air and water.

Afterward: survivors recall the Midgard Serpent in their speech.

Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál)

Preserved poetic fragments and kennings that reference Thor’s battle with the serpent, including decapitation imagery in one preserved verse line.

Thor and the Midgard Serpent (1905) by Emil Doepler

FOOTNOTES

Gylfaginning XXXIV: Loki and Angrboða; three children named; Jörmungandr identified as the Midgard Serpent.

Útgarða-Loki’s explanation: the horn tied to the sea (ebbtides); the cat revealed as the Midgard Serpent; “head and tail” encircling the earth.

Thor resolves to seek a meeting with the Midgard Serpent; he goes to Hymir in disguise and prepares to fish.

Fishing narrative in Gylfaginning: ox-head bait, rowing farther out, serpent hooked, venom, Hymir cuts the line, hammer hurled, Snorri’s note on whether the serpent lives.

Hymiskviða (Bellows): Thor’s hauling up of the serpent; epithets including “girdler of all men.”

Völuspá (Bellows): end-time motion— “monstrous Beast… twists,” “Snake beats the waves.”

Völuspá (Bellows): Thor goes against the serpent; kills it; nine paces; falls slain by the serpent’s venom.

Völuspá (Bellows): post-burning remembrance—speech about the “terrible girdler of earth.”

Gylfaginning Ragnarök narrative: sea floods because the Midgard Serpent advances onto land; serpent blows venom into air and water.

Gylfaginning after the burning: survivors “call to mind… the Midgard Serpent and… Fenris-Wolf.”

Skáldskaparmál (as preserved via translation on Sacred Texts): skaldic fragment describing Thor smiting the serpent’s head off.

Skáldskaparmál naming/lists material connected to Loki’s children and Eddic poetic reference practice.

Sources and Further Reading

Primary Eddic Texts Used Here

The Poetic Edda, trans. Henry Adams Bellows (as hosted in full text form): Völuspá and Hymiskviða.

The Prose Edda, trans. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur: Gylfaginning.

Skáldskaparmál material (Snorri’s Edda content) via accessible hosted translation excerpts.