Jörmungandr
Jǫrmungandr
Jörmungandr is the immense serpent placed in the sea around the world in Old Norse myth. Snorri’s Edda links the serpent to Thor through the fishing episode and to their fatal encounter during Ragnarök.
The serpent’s scale is cosmological: it lies in the ocean encircling the inhabited world and bites its own tail. Thor’s attempt to pull it from the sea stages a conflict that is deferred rather than resolved.
The Prose Edda is a medieval Icelandic synthesis written after Christianization. It preserves crucial material, but its organization and explanations must be read as a particular witness rather than a transparent transcript of earlier belief.
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Where is Jörmungandr placed in Snorri’s account?
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Connected lore
Curated relationships invite comparison without implying that distinct traditions are the same.
Sources & citations
Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning, 2nd ed., trans. Anthony Faulkes (Viking Society for Northern Research, 2005), chapters 34, 48, and 51.
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