{
  "id": "jormungandr",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Jormungandr",
  "summary": "The Midgard serpent, \"the girdler of all the earth\", brother of Fenrir; Thor hooks it with an ox-head from Hymir's boat and strikes it, and it sinks back into the sea; at Ragnarok it writhes \"In giant-wrath\", Thor kills it and dies of its venom nine paces on. Bellows's spelling is Mithgarthsorm.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "norse",
    "creatures",
    "monsters",
    "serpents"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "child_of",
      "target": "loki"
    },
    {
      "rel": "sibling_of",
      "target": "fenrir"
    },
    {
      "rel": "slew",
      "target": "thor"
    },
    {
      "rel": "killed_by",
      "target": "thor"
    },
    {
      "rel": "fought_in",
      "target": "ragnarok"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "poetic-edda"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What is Jormungandr?",
    "Is Jormungandr the son of Loki?",
    "How did Thor fish for Jormungandr?",
    "Does Thor kill Jormungandr?",
    "What happens to Jormungandr at Ragnarok?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "The serpent encircles the earth and is Fenrir's brother: it is \"The girdler of all the earth beneath\" and \"the foe of the gods\", and Thor smites \"the brother of Fenrir\" (Hymiskvitha 23–24); the gods after Ragnarok speak \"Of the terrible girdler of earth\" (Voluspo 60).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Hymiskvitha tells the fishing: Thor fixes an ox-head on his hook, the serpent gapes at it, he pulls \"The venomous serpent\" up to the boat and strikes its head with the hammer; \"The monsters roared, and the rocks resounded ... Then sank the fish in the sea forthwith\" (Hymiskvitha 22–25). The serpent is not killed.",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "At Ragnarok \"In giant-wrath does the serpent writhe; / O'er the waves he twists\" (Voluspo 50), and \"The bright snake gapes to heaven above\" as Thor comes against it (Voluspo 55).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "Thor and the serpent kill each other: Thor \"In anger smites\", then \"Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn, / And, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks\" (Voluspo 56).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The serpent's parentage from Loki is implied, not stated, in the poems: Hyndluljoth names the wolf and Sleipnir as Loki's, then \"The worst of marvels ... That sprang from the brother of Byleist\" without naming it (Hyndluljoth 42); \"brother of Fenrir\" (Hymiskvitha 24) supplies the rest.",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "\"Girdler of the earth\" and \"brother of Fenrir\" are the poems' names for it (Hymiskvitha 23–24); the modern name Jormungandr does not appear in Bellows's text.",
    "Hymiskvitha ends with the serpent sinking, not dying; Voluspo 56 is where both it and Thor die.",
    "Its descent from Loki is inferred from \"brother of Fenrir\" plus Hyndluljoth 42, not stated outright."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "How did Thor fish for Jormungandr?",
      "claim": "c2"
    },
    {
      "q": "What happens to Jormungandr at Ragnarok?",
      "claim": "c3"
    },
    {
      "q": "Does Thor kill Jormungandr?",
      "claim": "c4"
    },
    {
      "q": "Is Jormungandr the son of Loki?",
      "claim": "c5"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Distinguishes the fishing (survives) from Ragnarok (mutual death) with the stanzas, and is honest that the poems never spell out the serpent's parentage.",
  "confidence": 0.9,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "norse",
      "kind": "creature",
      "symbols": [
        "the serpent encircling the earth"
      ],
      "wikidata": "Q181227"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/jormungandr",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/jormungandr.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Jormungandr",
    "description": "The Midgard serpent, \"the girdler of all the earth\", brother of Fenrir; Thor hooks it with an ox-head from Hymir's boat and strikes it, and it sinks back into the sea; at Ragnarok it writhes \"In giant-wrath\", Thor kills it and dies of its venom nine paces on. Bellows's spelling is Mithgarthsorm.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/jormungandr",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri",
        "url": "https://github.com/fjarri/poetic_edda/tree/master/chapters"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Jormungandr"
  }
}