Thor and the Midgard Serpent

Loki's Son in the Deep

JörmungandrYOR-mun-gand — the Midgard Serpent, also called the World-Encircler (MiðgarðsormrMITH-gards-orm) — was the second child of LokiLO-kee and the giantess AngrboðaANG-er-bo-thah. When the gods brought the three children of that union before OdinOH-thin, Jörmungandr was cast into the ocean that encircles Midgard. Odin had seen the prophecy: this serpent would grow to wrap around the world and bite its own tail, and at Ragnarok it would rise from the sea and kill Thor.

The serpent grew. It grew until it circled all of Midgard, tail in mouth, holding the world together in its coils. The ocean floor where it lay is the boundary of the human world — everything beyond the serpent is chaos and the realm of giants. As long as Jörmungandr holds its own tail, the world holds its shape.

Thor knew this prophecy. He hated the serpent with a pure, uncomplicated hatred. The serpent is the creature that kills him. He has known this his entire life. He hunts it anyway.

The Fishing Trip with Hymir

Thor went to JötunheimrYO-tun-haym seeking a brewing cauldron large enough to hold mead for a feast of all the gods. The giant Hymir had one — a mile deep, the only cauldron large enough. Thor arrived at Hymir's hall and was received with the particular wariness giants showed the god who killed them most often.

The following morning, Hymir prepared to go fishing. Thor asked to come along. Hymir was reluctant — he was going to row out to the deep waters and Thor was small for a fishing companion, he said. The diminishment did not land well. Thor pressed. Hymir agreed, and told him to go find his own bait.

Thor went to Hymir's herd and killed the largest ox — the best bull, a black ox called Himinhrjótr ("Sky-Bellower"). He cut off its head and brought it as bait. They rowed out past the grounds where Hymir usually fished. Thor wanted to go farther — much farther — out to where the deep water was. Hymir rowed but became increasingly uneasy. They were moving beyond anywhere reasonable.

The Serpent Surfaces

Thor lowered a line with the ox-head bait deep into the black water below. The line went down, and down, and down — until it reached the ocean floor where Jörmungandr lay in its endless coil.

Jörmungandr took the bait.

Thor hauled on the line and felt the full weight of the World-Encircler on the other end. He braced his feet so hard against the boat's planking that they went through the hull — Snorri adds that Thor's feet reached the ocean floor and he stood on it, pulling from there. The serpent rose through the water. Its head broke the surface.

The two enemies faced each other across a boat's width of open water. Thor reached for Mjolnir. Jörmungandr stared back, spitting venom, the ox-head still in its jaws. The gods' champion and the World-Encircler, looking at each other for the first time at point-blank range.

"Fiercely Thor gazed upon the serpent — the worm stared up from below — both venomous in the glare of the Midgard Serpent."

— Hymiskviða, stanza 23, Poetic Edda

The Line Is Cut

Hymir was terrified. The boat was sinking — Thor's feet had gone through the hull. The Midgard Serpent was rising in front of them. Hymir reached over and cut the line.

Jörmungandr sank back into the deep water. The moment was over. Thor had been seconds from striking with Mjolnir — the hammer that might have ended the serpent before Ragnarok, might have changed the whole shape of what was coming. Hymir's knife ended it. Some traditions say Thor managed to hurl Mjolnir after the serpent as it sank, and may have wounded it. The Prose Edda and the poem disagree on this. Either way, Jörmungandr was gone.

Thor struck Hymir so hard that the giant flew overboard into the sea. Thor waded back to shore. He carried the cauldron on his head. The gods had their mead-vessel for the feast.

Their Fated Meeting — Nine Steps

The fishing trip was not the end. It was a preview — a glimpse of what was waiting.

At Ragnarok, when the bonds of FenrirFEN-reer break and Naglfar sets sail and the fires of Muspelheim sweep across the sky, Jörmungandr will rise from the ocean. It will thrash so violently that the seas will overflow the land. It will come ashore, spitting venom, poisoning the air and earth around it. And Thor will come to meet it.

They will fight. Thor will kill Jörmungandr — driving Mjolnir into the serpent's skull, ending the World-Encircler at last. Then Thor will take nine steps away from the body. On the ninth step, he will fall dead from the venom that has soaked into him during the battle.

"Farther by nine steps does Fiörgyn's son retreat, spent without glory, from the worm who fears no man."

— Völuspá, stanza 56, Poetic Edda (Bellows translation, 1923)

Nine steps. The hammer falls. Thor falls. Both die.

This is the end that has been waiting since Loki's child was cast into the ocean. Since Thor first hunted the serpent and Hymir cut the line. Every time Thor and Jörmungandr have met, it has been building toward those nine steps on the plain of Vigríðr.

What This Means

Thor and Jörmungandr are opposites that define each other. The serpent encircles Midgard, holds it together in its coils — the same creature whose existence threatens all of humanity is also, structurally, part of what holds the human world in place. The protector of Midgard and the World-Encircler are bound to each other in a way neither can escape.

The NorseNORSS knew what was coming. Thor knew. His death at the serpent's mouth was as certain as Odin's death at Fenrir's. The point was not to avoid it. The point was to show up on the day and take the thing with you when you went. Thor kills the serpent. He does not survive. He takes nine steps. He falls. The math is clear and always was.

There is something the tradition insists on here: that you can know your fate completely, fight it anyway not to escape it but to face it properly, and still count the encounter as a victory. Thor wins by walking nine steps. That is enough. The Norse did not ask for more than that from anyone.