A fishing trip inside a larger quest
In Hymiskviða, the gods need a cauldron large enough for Ægir to brew their feast. Týr says that his father Hymir possesses one, so he and Thor travel to Hymir’s home. The visit becomes a contest of appetite and strength. Thor eats so much that the household needs fresh provisions, and he joins Hymir at sea. For bait he tears the head from an ox.
Hymir catches whales, while Thor’s line reaches something far more dangerous: the serpent that surrounds the world. Thor hauls the creature upward and strikes its head with his hammer. The poem describes the earth shaking and the serpent sinking beneath the water. It does not narrate Hymir cutting the fishing line. After their return, Thor breaks a cup against Hymir’s unexpectedly hard head, carries away the cauldron, and overcomes the pursuers. The fishing is one episode in the successful acquisition of a feast’s equipment.
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 1–39, especially 17–28
The prose version changes the encounter
In Gylfaginning, Thor visits Hymir without Týr and appears as a young man. Hymir initially underestimates him. Thor rows farther out than his host wishes, baits a strong hook with an ox’s head, and pulls up the serpent. His feet break through the boat as he braces himself. The god and the creature stare at one another while the serpent sprays venom.
Here Hymir panics and cuts the line just as Thor raises his hammer. Thor throws the hammer after the sinking serpent. The narrator acknowledges a report that the blow killed it, then explicitly prefers its continued survival in the sea. Thor strikes Hymir and wades ashore. This ending preserves the serpent for the final encounter at Ragnarök, but the prose itself admits that another outcome circulated.
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49 in Anderson
Keep the uncertainty visible
A modern retelling can easily combine the poem’s cauldron quest with the prose knife-cut and present the result as one source. The selector below keeps their different actions separate. Hymiskviða’s sinking serpent is not an unambiguous death certificate; Snorri’s account is not silent about competing endings.
The encounter pits overwhelming strength against the edge of the known world. That is a useful reading of the scene, not a claim that every historical audience gave it a single symbolic meaning. Its surviving texts are medieval Icelandic witnesses to older narrative material whose precise composition and transmission remain debated.
Sources: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation); The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Hymiskviða 24–26; Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
One story, different sources
Choose a textual witness. The summary, diagram, and cited connections below change together. This is a selective map of claims, not a complete family tree.
Hymiskviða · poetic account
The fishing occurs during the cauldron quest. Týr accompanies Thor to Hymir’s home; Thor strikes the serpent, which sinks. No cut fishing line is narrated.
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 4–7, 17–28
Cited connections 4
Týr calls him father Hymir
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 5
Týr travels with Thor
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 7
Hymir rows with Thor
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 17–22
Thor hooks and strikes Jörmungandr
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 23–25
Gylfaginning · prose account
Thor travels alone. Hymir cuts the line; the narrator acknowledges a killing version but prefers the serpent’s survival.
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
Cited connections 4
Hymir hosts and rows with Thor
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
Thor hooks; throws hammer after Jörmungandr
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
Hymir releases by cutting line Jörmungandr
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
Thor strikes overboard Hymir
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
See what differs across the witnesses
Hymiskviða · poetic account
The fishing occurs during the cauldron quest. Týr accompanies Thor to Hymir’s home; Thor strikes the serpent, which sinks. No cut fishing line is narrated.
Source: The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) · Hymiskviða 4–7, 17–28
Gylfaginning · prose account
Thor travels alone. Hymir cuts the line; the narrator acknowledges a killing version but prefers the serpent’s survival.
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Gylfaginning, chapter XIV, §49
- Period / witness
- Poetic Edda witnesses chiefly thirteenth century CE; Prose Edda composed c.1220 and preserved in later copies. Mythic events are undated.
- Recording context
- Medieval Icelandic textual preservation; the principal Poetic Edda manuscript, Codex Regius, dates to c.1270. Recording and copying locations do not establish the birthplace of a story.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
Explore time & place →Read the sources
These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
The Poetic Edda (1923 translation) ↗
Anonymous Old Norse poets; translated by Henry Adams Bellows (1885–1939) · 1923 translation; medieval poems preserved principally in manuscripts of the thirteenth century
Edition & rights noteThe Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) ↗
Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241); translated by Rasmus B. Anderson (1846–1936) · 1901 printing of Anderson’s translation (copyright 1879); medieval work composed in Iceland around the 1220s
Edition & rights note