Jörmungandr: the World Serpent

Jörmungandr, known across the Nine Realms as the World Serpent and the Midgard Serpent, was a colossal Jotunn serpent who had grown so immense that his coiled body encircled all of Midgard. He lay in slumber within the Lake of Nine until Kratos and Atreus awoke him, after which he became their ally. Among the last of the giants left in Midgard, he was prophesied to fight Thor come Ragnarok.

Origins#

Jörmungandr was once a giant who, like many of his kin, locked his soul inside a magical marble inscribed with his name before the Aesir hunted the Jotnar to near extinction. The magic that made this possible had been devised by Angrboda's father before his death, and the souls waited to be found and freed. Mimir later speculated that the giant who became Jörmungandr had harbored a grudge against Thor even before sealing his soul away. According to Freya, the serpent simply appeared one day in the Lake of Nine, where he remained, growing until he could wrap his body around the whole of Midgard.

At one time the serpent and Thor fought a battle that was felt across all the Nine Realms, ending in a stalemate. When the Jotnar were hunted down by Thor and the other Aesir, the remaining giants fled to their homeland, leaving Jörmungandr and the Guardian, Faye, as the last of the giants in Midgard. He passed the long years sleeping and guarding Tyr's Temple, and a nearby horn could be sounded to summon him.

The journey with Kratos and Atreus#

Jörmungandr first encountered Kratos and Atreus when he rose from the Lake of Nine, causing its waters to drop. He spoke to them briefly, though they could not understand his ancient tongue, before returning to his rest. Only after the pair recovered the head of Mimir, the one being who still spoke that language, were they able to summon and converse with him. The first thing the serpent saw upon waking was a great statue of Thor, whom he loathed, and he tore off its upper half and swallowed it. When Mimir mistakenly named Kratos and Atreus as friends of Odin, Jörmungandr grew enraged, calming only when Mimir corrected himself. Learning of their wish to reach Jötunheim, he realigned the realm-travel bridge to set them on the right path.

The trio later realized that the swallowed statue might hold Mimir's missing second eye, which they needed to reach Jötunheim, and the serpent reluctantly allowed them inside his mouth to search his belly. While they searched, Baldur attacked him, and Jörmungandr expelled the three beside the frozen corpse of the Frost Giant Thamur. When that corpse was reanimated to assail them, Atreus called out to the serpent in the dead tongue, and Jörmungandr came at once, attacking Thamur's body and allowing Kratos to defeat Baldur. He then retreated to recover and was left undisturbed.

Ironwood and Ragnarok#

Years later, seeking answers about Loki, Atreus called the World Serpent again and received a single reply: Ironwood. The word proved to be a region of Jötunheim. There Atreus met Angrboda, and together they revived a large soulless snake whose soul had been stolen by her grandmother, placing within it the soul of a giant. The snake grew far beyond any natural rate, and Atreus came to realize that this snake was Jörmungandr himself, finally understanding why the serpent had sent him to Ironwood.

During Ragnarok, this younger serpent fought Thor in Asgard in a duel that mirrored their ancient enmity, at one point destroying a portal and cutting off reinforcements from Alfheim. In the end Thor struck him so violently that the blow splintered the World Tree and hurled the serpent backward through time, sending him to the moment he had first appeared in the Lake of Nine centuries earlier. After Asgard fell, Mimir and the others pieced together the truth: the serpent they had always known was that same younger Jörmungandr, sent into the past to grow into the giant that encircled the world. The marble used to revive the snake in Ironwood had been labeled with his name.

Nature and power#

Jörmungandr was reckoned among the mightiest beings in all the realms, strong enough to match the tremendous power of Thor, the strongest of the Aesir. His strength was such that his clash with Thor at Ragnarok shook and splintered the World Tree, and he overpowered and killed the reanimated corpse of the colossal Frost Giant Thamur with apparent ease. Despite his vast size he could move with great speed, and his endurance let him survive repeated battles with the thunder god. He possessed a lethal venom called Eitr, which he imparted to Kratos' Leviathan Axe at their first meeting.

For all his might, the serpent was lonely, being one of the last giants in Midgard and one of the few beings who spoke his tongue. He nonetheless enjoyed conversation when he could find it, sympathizing with those who shared his losses, which made him willing to help Kratos and Atreus. His hatred fell on the Aesir, chiefly Thor and Odin, for the slaughter of the giants, though he did not hate Mimir, who had tried to stop that slaughter, and he respected Tyr, the one Aesir who had refused to take part. Mimir noted that the serpent liked to be called Jörmi by those he considered close friends.