Jormungandr

Origin and myth

Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, is the second child of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, brother of the wolf Fenrir and of Hel. The serpent already appears in skaldic poems of the 9th and 10th centuries such as Ragnarsdrápa and Húsdrápa, but the fullest account is the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, written in Iceland in the 13th century. There Odin threw the young serpent into the ocean that surrounds the world of men. There it grew until it lay in the midst of the ocean, surrounding all the earth and biting its own tail.

The serpent's enemy is Thor. Three encounters are recorded. In the hall of the giant Utgarda-Loki, Thor is challenged to lift a cat and can only raise one paw from the floor - the "cat" was Jormungandr in disguise. Later, fishing with the giant Hymir, Thor baits a hook with an ox head, hooks the serpent and hauls its head above the waves; as he raises his hammer, the terrified Hymir cuts the line. That is Snorri's ending; some older skaldic verses seem to have Thor kill the serpent then and there. At Ragnarok, the sea rushes over the earth as the serpent writhes in giant rage and seeks the land, spewing venom that defiles air and sea. Thor kills it, retreats nine paces and falls dead from its venom.

Thor's fishing trip was a popular motif in Viking-age art, carved on the Altuna runestone in Sweden, the Hørdum stone in Denmark and a stone at Gosforth in Cumbria. The image of a serpent with its tail in its mouth also recalls the ouroboros of Egyptian and Greek tradition, but the Norse version is unique in making it a living antagonist with a name, a family and an appointment with destiny.

Appearance

Jormungandr is a sea serpent of endless length, and a sculptor's task is to suggest that length in a finite model. The head is the anchor: broad, flattened and heavy-jawed like a python's, but with the ridged brow and long fangs of a viper, and a crest or fin of spines running from the crown down the neck. Eyes are large, pale and slit-pupilled. At Ragnarok the serpent blows venom, so dripping fangs are a fair choice.

The body is a thick cylinder, muscular and slightly flattened from side to side toward the tail, patterned in large overlapping scales that are smaller on the belly. A dorsal fin or ridge of spines and side fins near the head suit the sea-serpent reading. Colours from the sea: dark green, blue-black, grey-green with a pale yellow or cream belly, and barnacles or weed clinging in the folds. The tail, if shown, ends in a fluke or a simple taper, and the classic composition has it held in the serpent's own mouth or vanishing back into the water.

In modern fantasy

Jormungandr appears in Norse-themed video games such as the God of War series, in comics and in various tabletop and card games, and the general sea-serpent form is a staple of fantasy settings everywhere. Modern depictions range from a realistic giant snake to a dragon-like beast with fins and horns. The Norse world serpent itself is common myth; a sculptor should avoid replicating any specific franchise's rendering.

3D printing notes

A serpent is a long, thin overhang from end to end, so the whole design question is how to make it self-supporting. The answer is coils. A Jormungandr sculpted as a stack of overlapping coils rising out of a water base, with the head lifted at the top, prints as a compact, stable mass with supports only under the chin and the fin edges. This works on FDM from 75 mm upward and on resin at any scale.

At 28-32 mm, print in resin; the fangs, the crest spines and the scale pattern are the whole appeal. For a 150 mm and larger display piece, split the model at coil junctions where the joins hide in the overlap; each segment then prints on its flat cross-section with no supports at all. Print the head separately, oriented jaw-up, and pin it to the neck.

A rising, striking pose - the Hymir fishing scene, with the head bursting up from the water - is dramatic but needs a rod: run a 5 mm steel or brass rod through the neck into the base and hide it inside the water splash. The water itself is a strong candidate for clear resin, either printed or poured, with the coils emerging through it. Print-in-place articulated serpents are a genuine option for a toy-like version: segments joined by ball-and-socket links can be printed pre-assembled on both FDM and resin.

Painting and display

Base the body in a deep green-blue, wash with black-green, and dry-brush the scale ridges with a lighter teal, then with a pale grey-green on the highest points. Keep the belly scales a warm cream with a yellow glaze at the edges. The head gets extra attention: darker around the eyes and along the jaw, with the fangs an ivory white and a gloss varnish on the eyes and the venom. A final gloss coat on the whole body, or a satin coat with gloss only in the recesses, gives a wet look.

For display, clear resin water tinted faintly blue with a white foam wash where the coils break the surface is the natural choice. A cool blue LED under a clear water base lights the whole model from beneath. For a Ragnarok mood, add green glazes to the water where venom spreads.

Related creatures

Jormungandr's brother is the wolf Fenrir, and both join the final battle at Ragnarok. Among other world-ending sea creatures, the Hebrew Leviathan is the closest parallel, while the Kraken shares the same Norse seas. For a serpent-dragon from the Kazakh tradition, see Aidahar.

Sources

• Snorri Sturluson, The Younger Edda (Gylfaginning, trans. R. B. Anderson), Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18947
• Wikipedia, Jörmungandr, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6rmungandr

For a world serpent coiling out of a resin sea on your shelf or your gaming table, ask Fantasy Lab 3D for a custom print.