Thor Fishes for Jormungandr

No one knows how deep the ocean goes. Deeper than the tallest mountain is high, farther down than the places where whales swim, there lives a creature so huge that its body wraps all the way around the world. It is called the serpent Jormungandr.

The people of the old North told of the giants who lived in the frozen land of Jotunheim. Among them was one named Hymir. He had rowed out to seas that no one else dared to approach. And it was Hymir, and no one else, who once took Thor, the god of thunder, so far out to sea that they came close to the place where Jormungandr lies coiled.

The story begins with an unfinished feast. A king of the sea had promised the gods a great feast. But his kitchen held only the faint smell of raw honey, never brewed into mead, because he lacked a cauldron big enough to brew for everyone. There was only one cauldron that large in the world, a full mile wide. It belonged to Hymir, who lived beyond the deepest forest and beyond the highest mountain, where few dared to cross. Thor stood up among the gods and offered to fetch that cauldron, by strength or by wits, whichever was needed first.

The road to Hymir's house was long and rough. It ran through deep forest and over high mountains before Thor finally arrived. A giant woman of Hymir's household met him at the door with worried eyes. She advised Thor to hide behind the stone pillar inside the house and wait until Hymir had finished his supper before showing himself. Hymir was always hot-tempered after a day of hunting, she said, and he only calmed down once his belly was full.

Thor had barely settled behind the pillar when he heard heavy footsteps in the yard. Hymir came in, dragging a huge wild ox he had just caught alive on his hunt. Its horns were so strong that it had been given the name Heaven-Breaker. Hymir tied the ox to the doorpost, then swept an angry gaze across the stone pillar where Thor was hiding. That one look was enough. The pillar cracked apart and crashed down, bringing the crossbeam with it, and all the cauldrons and pots hanging there clattered across the floor.

Thor stepped out of the wreckage and stood tall in front of Hymir. "It is I, Hymir," he said, his hand still resting on the handle of his hammer. Hymir realized that the uninvited guest was the god who carried the hammer Mjolnir. He understood at once that it was better not to pick a fight, so he invited Thor to stay for supper. That night, three oxen were roasted until the whole house smelled of them. The fat sizzled on the glowing coals, and the bones piled up beside the table legs. Thor alone ate an entire ox. Hymir was amazed, and a little resentful too. At this rate, he complained, not one head of his cattle would be left alive.

Thor laughed out loud and promised to go fishing the next morning, to bring back enough fish to make up for what he had eaten. Hymir agreed to go with him, but he did not forget to add a warning, half challenge and half caution. The waters he was about to take Thor to were no place for small fish. They were home to huge creatures that no one had ever seen.

The sky was still misty when Hymir got up, a fishing pole and a coil of line in his hands. He urged Thor to hurry and find bait of his own, and told him it had to be very big bait to catch anything worth having. Thor walked over to the ox, still tied to the doorpost. He laid a hand on the horns of Heaven-Breaker and asked whether this bait was big enough. Hymir answered that it was, if Thor was big enough to handle it. Thor said nothing. He simply took the head of Heaven-Breaker for his bait and carried it down to the boat.

The two of them rowed out to sea, farther and farther from shore, beyond even the places where Hymir usually fished. Hymir let down his line first, and before long he hauled up an enormous whale, the biggest in those waters. He puffed out his chest with pride. Thor only smiled and dropped the ox head into the deep water.

The ox head sank and kept on sinking. It went past the waters where the whales swim, deeper still, all the way down to where Jormungandr lay coiled, guarding the ocean floor. The giant serpent raised its head from its own coils, snapped up the bait and swallowed it whole. The hook caught fast.

The whole sea seemed to explode. The serpent thrashed so hard that waves rose up in fury, and the little boat pitched wildly. Thor drove both his legs straight through the bottom of the boat and planted his feet on the floor of the ocean. Then he pulled with all his strength. Coil by coil, the serpent was forced to loosen its hold on the earth it had wrapped for so long.

Then that enormous head rose clear out of the water, towering right above the little boat. A creature big enough to wrap around the whole world was now rearing up in front of the two of them, over a tiny wooden boat in the middle of the vast ocean. Thor looked up. In that moment he gazed straight into the eyes of the serpent. They were as big as two lakes, and deep enough to hold a whole ocean inside.

Hymir went pale, his hands trembling on the oars. He forgot all about his pride in landing a whale. The biggest giant in those waters now only wanted to make himself small, smaller than the boat that carried him. Thor let go of the line and reached for his hammer Mjolnir, ready to strike. But at that very moment, Hymir swung his knife and cut the fishing line.

The enormous head of the serpent sank back into the deep water. It went down slowly, coiling around the world again. The surface of the sea closed over it, as smooth as if nothing had happened at all.

All the way home, Hymir did not say a word. His face was still pale, and he rowed steadily without stopping once. Thor was the opposite. He told the story again and again with delight, his voice ringing across the calm sea. Then, just as he had promised, Thor brought Hymir's huge cauldron back to the gods. It was big enough to brew mead for the whole feast. Everyone raised their cups, and laughter filled the great hall. But the story everyone kept retelling that night was not about the cauldron. It was about the head of a giant serpent that had once risen in the middle of the ocean, taller than a boat, and then quietly sank back down.

Even now, when the open sea lies calm, perhaps somewhere beneath those smooth waves there is still a creature so huge that its body wraps around the whole world. It lies coiled in peaceful sleep, keeping the deepest secret of the ocean.