A Norse narrative from the Poetic Edda's Hymiskvida in which Thor, traveling with the giant Hymir to fish for a cauldron large enough to brew ale for all the gods, uses an ox head as bait and hooks the Midgard Serpent Jormungandr from the seabed; Thor raises his hammer to kill the serpent as it surfaces, but the terrified Hymir cuts the line, and Jormungandr sinks back into the sea to await their next meeting at Ragnarok.
Facts
Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteScholars of Norse religion treat the fishing scene's wide attestation in stone carving as unusually strong independent confirmation that the story circulated in something like its Eddic form before Christianization, rather than being a purely literary invention of the poem that records it. 1 Scholarly NoteThe Gosforth Cross in Cumbria carves the fishing scene alongside other Ragnarok imagery, Loki bound with Sigyn catching the serpent's venom and Thor's son Vidar tearing the wolf Fenrir's jaws, and pairs them on the same monument with a small carved Crucifixion, read by scholars as a deliberate juxtaposition of pagan apocalypse and Christian imagery in a transitional Anglo-Scandinavian community. 1 Meaning
Central MotifThor's hooking of the world serpent from the sea floor, ended not by his own hand but by a companion's cut line 1 Text
Source TextPoetic Edda, Hymiskvida 1 History
Historical NoteHymiskvida survives in the thirteenth century Codex Regius manuscript, though its language and meter are judged by philologists to preserve a considerably older poem, and the scene is independently attested in pre-Christian carved stones, including the Altuna Runestone in Sweden and the Gosforth Cross in England, that predate the manuscript by centuries. 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars are divided on whether the poem's ending, Hymir cutting the line before Thor can kill the serpent, was the original conclusion or a later softening of an ending in which Thor actually struck Jormungandr, since Snorri's own retelling in the Prose Edda differs on this exact point. 2 Sources
Primary SourceThe Poetic Edda, preserved chiefly in the Codex Regius manuscript, is the primary textual witness, read alongside the independent pictorial evidence of the Altuna and Gosforth stones. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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