Jörmungandr’s Family Tree

About Jörmungandr →

Family

• Angrboda(parent),Loki(parent),Fenrir(sibling),Hel(sibling)— Consort

  Loki and the giantess Angrboða produced three monstrous offspring — Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel — whom the gods scattered across the worlds after learning they were fated to destroy them at Ragnarök.

Enemy of

• Thor

  Thor and Jörmungandr are arch-enemies fated to destroy each other. Thor nearly caught the World Serpent during his famous fishing trip with Hymir, and encountered it disguised as Útgarða-Loki's cat. Their final battle at Ragnarök ends both.

Slain by

• Thor

  Thor and Jörmungandr destroy each other at Ragnarök — Thor shatters the World Serpent with Mjölnir, then staggers nine paces and falls dead, drowned in the serpent's venom.

Associated with

• Hymir

  In the Hymiskviða, Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir and hooks Jörmungandr with an ox head. Thor nearly kills the serpent, but Hymir cuts the line in terror, letting the World Serpent escape back into the depths.

• Jotunheim

  Jörmungandr was born in Jötunheim to Loki and Angrboða before the gods seized the three monstrous siblings and scattered them across the worlds.

• Midgard

  Jörmungandr encircles Midgard in the depths of the ocean, his body forming the boundary between the mortal world and the chaos beyond. When he releases his tail at Ragnarök, that boundary dissolves.

• Mjolnir

  Thor raises Mjölnir to strike Jörmungandr during the Hymiskviða fishing episode but misses when Hymir cuts the line. At Ragnarök, Mjölnir finally delivers the killing blow, slaying the World Serpent.

• Odin

  Odin seized Jörmungandr from Jötunheim and hurled the serpent into the deep ocean surrounding Midgard, where it grew so vast it encircled the entire world and grasped its own tail.

• Ragnarok

  Jörmungandr's release of his tail signals the start of Ragnarök. The World Serpent emerges onto land for the first time, spewing venom that poisons sky and sea, and advances to Vígríðr where he battles Thor to mutual destruction.

• Utgarda-Loki

  Útgarða-Loki disguised Jörmungandr as a great cat and challenged Thor to lift it. Thor could raise only one paw, but the giants were terrified — he had nearly lifted the World Serpent from the ocean.