Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video we’re going to be discussing
Jormungandr, the World Serpent, a monster so large and so long
that he encircled the world, a monster so powerful that he flooded the earth and even killed Thor.
Let’s get into it.
By Angrboda, an ogress who dwelt in the land of the giants, Loki sired three children,
three monstrous children. These were Fenrir, a behemoth, indomitable wolf, the World Serpent,
and the goddess Hel - she of frightening countenance, with a body half black and half
the colour of pallid flesh. The winds of prophecy brought tidings to the gods, revealing that these
three children were to be among the greatest banes of the gods, destined to bring ruin and lay low
the halls of Asgard. Odin, trying to forestall the doom that lurked somewhere in the future,
dispatched many of the gods to find Loki’s monstrous brood and bring them before him. Hel he
cast down to Niflheim and made her ruler of Hel, a realm as cruel and cold as its mistress - one
reserved for those who have their lives snuffed out by disease or for those who succumb to the
withering of old age, as the Prose Edda explains it, though there are conflicting accounts. The
World Serpent was thrown down to Midgard, the realm where humans lived, plummeting into the
sea that surrounded the earth, where it grew so large that it filled those vast waters,
encircling the world, until tail tip rested in fanged mouth. Fenrir, unlike his two younger
siblings, wasn’t banished, but raised in the halls of Asgard. They kept him close, for they knew that
he above all others was fated to wreak death and destruction upon the gods. His fate, which was to
be fettered beneath Asgard, imprisoned until the onset of Ragnarok, the great cataclysm that was
to break all bonds, has already been covered on this channel in our video about Fenrir.
Beyond his birth and early banishment, the World Serpent, as he features in Norse mythology,
is almost entirely defined by his feud with Thor. The animosity that existed between them
was engendered by several hostile encounters, culminating in their eventual one-on-one showdown
during the events of Ragnarok, a confrontation punctuated by them claiming each other’s lives.
Before we get to their final bout, though, we’re going to spend a little time covering
the preliminaries, focusing on the first incident between them.
The myth in which they first meet centres on Thor, who, accompanied by Loki and a couple of servants,
travelled deep into Jotunheim, the land of the giants. They found their way to a fortress,
looming before them, with walls so high that any guards patrolling the ramparts must have kept
watch amongst the clouds like celestial sentries. Inside, the king told Thor and his group that only
those endowed with talents greater than those of he and his people find hospitality with them;
and so, they were hard put to trials, competing to prove their quality. To Thor’s chagrin, he failed
in each challenge raised against him. He lost the drinking contest; he couldn’t lift the king’s
giant cat off the ground; and he couldn’t even beat the king’s nurse, an old wizened woman, in
a wrestling match. Thor was left crestfallen and dismayed, for never before had he suffered defeat
in contests involving his voracious appetite, unparalleled strength, or fighting prowess.
The next day, all was revealed. He was the victim of many magical deceptions. The drinking horn
from which he gulped was connected to the sea, and while he didn’t finish the horn, he drank so much
that the sea’s waters were lowered, creating the tides; the cat he lifted wasn’t actually a cat:
it was the world serpent with an illusion cast about him so that Thor almost lifting
the cat off the ground, in truth, was him almost lifting the whole serpent aloft into the sky;
and finally, the opponent he was pitted against in the wrestling match, ostensibly an aged nurse,
was actually the personification of old age, which no person can best, no matter how strong.
After this encounter, Thor resolves to find a way to confront the World Serpent again.
Now, we’re going to skip past the next couple of encounters,
which will bring us to the onset of Ragnarok.
Around the same time that Fenrir breaks free from his interminable bondage beneath Asgard,
the Midgard Serpent slithers out of the sea, manoeuvring it’s colossal bulk towards land,
causing the sea to surge and wash over the land as if myriad earthquakes created
as many advancing walls of water, submerging every stretch of shore.
The World Serpent then rears its head and spews venom in every direction.
Following this, all the forces seeking to assail Asgard converge on the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge
that connects Midgard to Asgard. They cross over, and the bridge breaks with their passing.
Now marshalled on the plains of Vigrid, where the final battle between gods and monsters
takes place, are the World Serpent, Fenrir, the fire giants led by their chief, Surtr, the frost
giants led by Hrym, and all the hordes of Hel led by Loki. A series of epic duels ensues, including
the fight between Thor and the World Serpent. Details describing the fight are sparse, but
the end is clear: Thor kills the World Serpent, but his moment of triumph is cut short; as he
finds himself coated in so much venom that he himself drops dead after taking only nine steps.
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content please LIKE
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