HOME | DD

Description
Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, is one of three monstrous children born between Loki and the jötunn Angrboða, the other two being Hel and Fenrir. His name literally just means "big monster", I can't make this shit up. Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda tells us that Odin's prophecy-fueled paranoia led the Allfather to chuck the baby worm into the sea. Unfortunately for him, the sea is quite large, and it gave Jörmungandr the room to grow to live up to his name. The serpent is so large that he coils around the entire world and still has room to bite his tail. I often see it cited that Jörmungandr releasing his tail is a sign of Ragnarök, but I can't for the life of me track down where this comes from. All the translations of the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda which mention the serpent that I've checked make no mention of this detail, just that Jörmungandr causes great waves as he comes onto land. If this is just like one of those things Jacob Grimm made up, or if I'm just stupid, please let me know, this has been bugging me ever since I started drawing this.

Despite being such a massive presence that his name is just "big monster", Jörmungandr actually shows up surprisingly sparsely in our surviving sources. He only seems to have three major appearances, and each revolves around his rivalry with Thor. Chronologically, the origin of the beef between these two titans of Norse mythology is explained in a story in the Prose Edda. The tale goes that Thor entered a contest of strength with the mysterious jötunn Útgarða-Loki, and the specific challenge was to lift an unassuming little kitty. The mighty Thor got his hands under the cat and heaved up with all his strength, but just kind of fluked out like Spongebob with anchor arms. All he managed to accomplish was getting one paw off the floor, which actually terrified Útgarða-Loki, because this little kitten was actually Jörmungandr in disguise, and Thor lifting that single paw actually translated to the snake being lifted halfway to heaven and causing enormous waves. It's at this point that Útgarða-Loki realized that Thor is too OP for his own good and decides to just pack up and nope out of there. Thor though remained shitty that he couldn't lift the cat all the way, and Snorri follows this frustration up with another story which is clearly based on the poem Hymiskviða. The older poem has it that Thor and Týr traveled to Jötunheim to recover a magical cauldron from Týr's father Hymir so that the gods can get totally krunk at Ægir's place. After a series of whacky events, Thor and Hymir detour into a fishing trip, and Thor snags himself a Midgard Serpent. Thor hoists, jamming his legs through the boat to brace himself against the sea floor like a cartoon character, gets ready to kick the snake's ass, and then a terrified Hymir cuts his line and lets the snake sink back down. Thor then promptly sucker punches Hymir's lights out for being a total square and then grumbles back to shore. It's kind of hilarious, not gonna lie, but it's clearly an old tale as we see this exact scene depicted on many Viking runestones.

Of course, Thor will ultimately get his chance to lay into his white whale come Ragnarök. As the serpent coils and writhes its way onto shore and causes great natural disasters in its wake, Thor rides headlong into battle, knowing full well he is prophesied to meet his end here. Though Thor will kill the snake, Jörmungandr's supernaturally potent venom will also spell the end of the thunder god. Völuspá specifically states that Thor will only take nine steps before collapsing, so ends the two mightiest beings in all the Norse cosmos. While it's easy to cast Jörmungandr as the penultimate monster in this context, there may be a tiny window into a view where he was seen as a more balanced character, at least according to Dr. Carolyne Larrington. In her translation of the passage in the Völuspá that describes the final battle, she assigns one of the epithets used, "Protector of Midgard", to Jörmungandr instead of Thor. Personally, I'm not entirely convinced since this is pretty much exclusively used as a kenning for Thor, but as I understand it, the original grammar of the passage leaves a little bit of wiggle room for interpretation. I'm also not an Oxford professor like Dr. Larrington, I'd definitely take her word over my dumb ass. It's certainly an interesting proposal. My little corner of Tornado Alley has been wracked by fierce storms and power outages these past couple weeks, and it serves to highlight that Thor can be too strong for his own good sometimes, much like the episode with the cat. As "Protector of Midgard", Jörmungandr may serve as a sort of character foil to Thor, considering himself a protector of mankind as well, but instead of protecting us from giants and supernatural monsters, Jörmungandr keeps in check the collateral damage the gods often bring upon mankind. He encircles the world, not to ensnare us, but to serve as a wall. That's entirely speculation though, but I can't deny it has an allure that I'm willing to incorporate into my personal practice and the world of Drake Hero.

Design notes, this one was quite fun and very rewarding to design! I really put the anatomy practice I've been getting in with drawing a bunch of animals to use. I didn't really base my interpretation off of any historical depictions of Jörmungandr since they're all kinda lazy and just draw him as a big viper or something. I like my monsters to look a little bit like they could be their own species with biologically plausible features, not necessarily for the sake of realism itself, but just because I think that genuinely makes them look better and more lifelike. For this piece, the initial prompt I gave myself was to turn a crocodile into a snake. The saltwater crocodile is the largest reptile alive today, and they're also semi-aquatic creatures, so I figured their scale patterns would provide a nice sense of bulk and toughness to such a massive serpent. I also have him a nice fat alligator jowl, cause nothing says big dragon like a prize Florida gator. His head was actually inspired by the Asian water monitor, though again textured like a crocodilian. To emulate the fish fins on the side of his head a few historical illustrations often depict Jörmungandr with, I sort of combined the frill of a frilled lizard with the shape of lionfish fins. Lastly, I gave him a pair of pharyngeal jaws found today in moray eels. I just think they look sick as hell, and it also gives a bit of a nod to the Creataceous mosasaurs which possessed a similar structure for raking prey down their throats. As mosasaurs were massive aquatic superpredators that were actually closely related to snakes themselves, it seems a fitting inspiration to draw from. Overall, I'm very happy with this design. This is very much the commanding presence I'd expect if I were ever to come face to face with the Protector of Midgard.

Description
Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, is one of three monstrous children born between Loki and the jötunn Angrboða, the other two being Hel and Fenrir. His name literally just means "big monster", I can't make this shit up. Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda tells us that Odin's prophecy-fueled paranoia led the Allfather to chuck the baby worm into the sea. Unfortunately for him, the sea is quite large, and it gave Jörmungandr the room to grow to live up to his name. The serpent is so large that he coils around the entire world and still has room to bite his tail. I often see it cited that Jörmungandr releasing his tail is a sign of Ragnarök, but I can't for the life of me track down where this comes from. All the translations of the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda which mention the serpent that I've checked make no mention of this detail, just that Jörmungandr causes great waves as he comes onto land. If this is just like one of those things Jacob Grimm made up, or if I'm just stupid, please let me know, this has been bugging me ever since I started drawing this.

Despite being such a massive presence that his name is just "big monster", Jörmungandr actually shows up surprisingly sparsely in our surviving sources. He only seems to have three major appearances, and each revolves around his rivalry with Thor. Chronologically, the origin of the beef between these two titans of Norse mythology is explained in a story in the Prose Edda. The tale goes that Thor entered a contest of strength with the mysterious jötunn Útgarða-Loki, and the specific challenge was to lift an unassuming little kitty. The mighty Thor got his hands under the cat and heaved up with all his strength, but just kind of fluked out like Spongebob with anchor arms. All he managed to accomplish was getting one paw off the floor, which actually terrified Útgarða-Loki, because this little kitten was actually Jörmungandr in disguise, and Thor lifting that single paw actually translated to the snake being lifted halfway to heaven and causing enormous waves. It's at this point that Útgarða-Loki realized that Thor is too OP for his own good and decides to just pack up and nope out of there. Thor though remained shitty that he couldn't lift the cat all the way, and Snorri follows this frustration up with another story which is clearly based on the poem Hymiskviða. The older poem has it that Thor and Týr traveled to Jötunheim to recover a magical cauldron from Týr's father Hymir so that the gods can get totally krunk at Ægir's place. After a series of whacky events, Thor and Hymir detour into a fishing trip, and Thor snags himself a Midgard Serpent. Thor hoists, jamming his legs through the boat to brace himself against the sea floor like a cartoon character, gets ready to kick the snake's ass, and then a terrified Hymir cuts his line and lets the snake sink back down. Thor then promptly sucker punches Hymir's lights out for being a total square and then grumbles back to shore. It's kind of hilarious, not gonna lie, but it's clearly an old tale as we see this exact scene depicted on many Viking runestones.

Of course, Thor will ultimately get his chance to lay into his white whale come Ragnarök. As the serpent coils and writhes its way onto shore and causes great natural disasters in its wake, Thor rides headlong into battle, knowing full well he is prophesied to meet his end here. Though Thor will kill the snake, Jörmungandr's supernaturally potent venom will also spell the end of the thunder god. Völuspá specifically states that Thor will only take nine steps before collapsing, so ends the two mightiest beings in all the Norse cosmos. While it's easy to cast Jörmungandr as the penultimate monster in this context, there may be a tiny window into a view where he was seen as a more balanced character, at least according to Dr. Carolyne Larrington. In her translation of the passage in the Völuspá that describes the final battle, she assigns one of the epithets used, "Protector of Midgard", to Jörmungandr instead of Thor. Personally, I'm not entirely convinced since this is pretty much exclusively used as a kenning for Thor, but as I understand it, the original grammar of the passage leaves a little bit of wiggle room for interpretation. I'm also not an Oxford professor like Dr. Larrington, I'd definitely take her word over my dumb ass. It's certainly an interesting proposal. My little corner of Tornado Alley has been wracked by fierce storms and power outages these past couple weeks, and it serves to highlight that Thor can be too strong for his own good sometimes, much like the episode with the cat. As "Protector of Midgard", Jörmungandr may serve as a sort of character foil to Thor, considering himself a protector of mankind as well, but instead of protecting us from giants and supernatural monsters, Jörmungandr keeps in check the collateral damage the gods often bring upon mankind. He encircles the world, not to ensnare us, but to serve as a wall. That's entirely speculation though, but I can't deny it has an allure that I'm willing to incorporate into my personal practice and the world of Drake Hero.

Design notes, this one was quite fun and very rewarding to design! I really put the anatomy practice I've been getting in with drawing a bunch of animals to use. I didn't really base my interpretation off of any historical depictions of Jörmungandr since they're all kinda lazy and just draw him as a big viper or something. I like my monsters to look a little bit like they could be their own species with biologically plausible features, not necessarily for the sake of realism itself, but just because I think that genuinely makes them look better and more lifelike. For this piece, the initial prompt I gave myself was to turn a crocodile into a snake. The saltwater crocodile is the largest reptile alive today, and they're also semi-aquatic creatures, so I figured their scale patterns would provide a nice sense of bulk and toughness to such a massive serpent. I also have him a nice fat alligator jowl, cause nothing says big dragon like a prize Florida gator. His head was actually inspired by the Asian water monitor, though again textured like a crocodilian. To emulate the fish fins on the side of his head a few historical illustrations often depict Jörmungandr with, I sort of combined the frill of a frilled lizard with the shape of lionfish fins. Lastly, I gave him a pair of pharyngeal jaws found today in moray eels. I just think they look sick as hell, and it also gives a bit of a nod to the Creataceous mosasaurs which possessed a similar structure for raking prey down their throats. As mosasaurs were massive aquatic superpredators that were actually closely related to snakes themselves, it seems a fitting inspiration to draw from. Overall, I'm very happy with this design. This is very much the commanding presence I'd expect if I were ever to come face to face with the Protector of Midgard.