History of the Midgard Serpent

The Midgard Serpent, Midgarðsormur, or World Serpent, is, in Norse mythology, a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki's three children, Fenrisúlfr, Hel and Jörmungandr, and tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail. When he lets go the world will end. As a result he earned the alternate name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. Jörmungandr's archenemy is the God Thor.

Here is my armature for the Midgard Serpent. The clay model will measure roughly 11 feet, head to tail. Since Thor is sculpted in 1/2 scale, this would make the Midgard Serpent roughly 22 feet.

The armature consists of a waterholes I cut into segments. Next I inserted a 10 foot, 1/4 inch diameter aluminum rod to aid in the coiled pose. I double up on the rod for the first three feet to help support the weight of the head. The hole was then wrapped with bubble wrap in order to give it the correct girth. In the next step, clay will be brushed on the bubble wrap.


The Midgard Serpent's armature consists of styrofoam in order to ease on the weight of the clay. This image depicts the first layer of clay I brushed on.


I will be using the moray eel as a reference, since it is the closest creature to a sea-serpent I can think of.