Opposite us the Kjerag plateau in the south, below us the cerulean blue waters of Lysefjord wind this way and that like Jormungandr, the
Midgard Serpent.
The best of the standalone tales is the origin of poetry, 'The Mead of Poets.' The giants of Jotunheim, the
Midgard serpent, the dwarves, the Aesir, the Vanir and the world-tree Yggdrassil-they're all here.
In his "Lecture on Dragons," presented to an audience of children at the University Museum in Oxford, on 1 January 1938, (shortly after the publication of The Hobbit) besides discussing the dragon fight in Beowulf and the fight between Sigurd and Fafnir in the Volsunga Saga, Tolkien also related the legend of Thor and the
Midgard Serpent, and briefly referred "to Chinese dragons, to Merlin and the red and white dragons in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, and to St.
Some were of the air (the griffin, and the raven); some slithered over the earth (the rainbow serpent of Aboriginal Australia); and some swam the seven seas (the Norse
Midgard Serpent).
names: the
midgard serpent combined with the giant ymir and at one time
The Fenris Wolf breaks loose, the
Midgard Serpent is freed from its constraints, and evil overtakes the universe.
Thor and the
Midgard Serpent, which encircles the earth, will slay each other, as will Heimdall and Loki.
In his Viking boat (the finest craft I have ever rowed) we pluck plaice and cod from the icy waters of the fjord while the puffinologist tells of trolling the waters of Loch Ness at midnight with a calf's head, fishing for the Monster like Thor fishing for the
Midgard serpent. Alas, our hosts are unimpressed with our catch, far preferring the local delicacy of skarpe-kod, raw mutton "sharpened" by hanging it out in the weather until it acquires the je ne sais quoi of decomposition.
Thor killed the
Midgard serpent with his hammer but was drowned in his flood of venom.
And finally, there is Jormungand, the
Midgard Serpent. Jormungand was the child of the trickster god, Loki, and the giantess Angrboda.
This could be Thor, with his Viking braid, fighting the
Midgard serpent which killed him with its spewed poison.