Book VII · The Unclaimed Entry 48 of 55
Jörmungandr — unclaimed
A serpent long enough to encircle the world and bite its own tail
Thrown into the sea by Odin, it grew until it could reach all the way around the earth and take its own tail in its mouth. When it lets go, the world ends. Scandinavia builds excellent cars and has never once used this.
- Book
- Book VII — The Unclaimed
- Marque
- Unclaimed
- Model
- Jörmungandr
- Years
- Available immediately
- Origin
- Scandinavia
- Namesake
- The Midgard Serpent
- Binomial
- mythological
Sigil generated from the entry's own name. Every coil, hue and scale in this plate is a function of the string “vacancy-jormungandr”, and of nothing else.
Jörmungandr is the middle child of Loki: the Midgard Serpent, cast into the ocean surrounding the world of men, where it grew until it encircled the earth entirely and closed its jaws on its own tail. The Norse texts are explicit that the release of that tail is one of the signs of Ragnarök.
It is, in other words, the ouroboros with a deadline.
The ouroboros itself — the serpent eating its own tail — is far older and far more widespread, appearing in Egyptian funerary texts, in Greek alchemical manuscripts, and eventually in every symbol system that needed a way to draw eternity without drawing a line. It is a closed loop that consumes itself in order to continue, and there is no better emblem for an industry that has spent one hundred and thirty years selling the replacement for the thing it sold last year.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark have between them produced Volvo, Saab, Koenigsegg, Polestar and Zenvo. Not one has reached for the world serpent. The Ophidiary finds this restrained to the point of perversity and would like it corrected.
It notes, additionally, that a Swedish hypercar named Jörmungandr would be pronounceable by approximately nobody in its principal export markets, which has never previously stopped anyone.
It holds its own tail and the world holds together. It lets go and the world does too. Nobody has put this on a car.
Questions people actually ask
What is Jörmungandr?
The Midgard Serpent of Norse mythology — a child of Loki, cast into the ocean by Odin, which grew large enough to encircle the world and grasp its own tail. Its release is one of the signs of Ragnarök.
Provenance of claims
This is a satire with a research habit. Every load-bearing statement above is listed here and labelled, so you can tell which sentences would survive a librarian.
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Documented
Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, encircles the world holding its own tail, and its release presages Ragnarök.
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Documented
The ouroboros appears in ancient Egyptian and later Greek alchemical iconography.
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Contested
No Scandinavian manufacturer has used the name.
Correction welcomed. Enthusiastically.