Fishing,” he said to Hymir. “I suppose it must all be about learningpatience. It’s a bit dull, isn’t it? I wonder what I’m going to catch for our dinner.” And that was when the sea erupted. Jormungundr, the Midgard serpent,had bitten down on the huge ox head, and the hook had dug deep into theroof of its mouth. The serpent writhed in the water, trying to free itself.Thor held on to the line.“It’s going to drag us under!” boomed Hymir in horror. “Let go of theline!”Thor shook his head. He strained against the fishing line, determined tohold on.The thunder god slammed his feet through the bottom of the boat, andhe used the sea bottom to brace himself, and he began to haul Jormungundrup on board.The serpent spat gouts of black poison toward them. Thor ducked, andthe poison missed him. He continued to pull.“It’s the Midgard serpent, you fool!” shouted Hymir. “Let go of the line!We’ll both die!”Thor said nothing, just hauled the line in, hand over hand, his eyes fixedon his enemy. “I will kill you,” he whispered to the serpent, beneath the roarof the waves and the howl of the wind and the thrashing and screaming ofthe beast. “Or you will kill me. This I swear.”He said it beneath his breath, but he could have sworn that the Midgardserpent heard him. It fixed him with its eyes, and the next gout of poisoncame so close to Thor that he could taste it on the ocean air. The poisonsprayed his shoulder, and it burned where it touched.Thor simply laughed and hauled again.Somewhere, it seemed to Thor, in the distance, Hymir was babbling and grumbling and shouting about the monstrous serpent, and about the searushing into the rowing boat through the holes in the bottom, and about howthey would both die out here, in the cold, cold ocean, so far from dry land.Thor did not care about any of this. He was fighting the serpent, playing it,letting it exhaust itself thrashing and pulling.Thor began to pull the fishing line back onto the boat.The Midgard serpent’s head was almost within striking distance. Thorreached down without glancing away, and his fingers closed around the haftof his hammer. He knew just where the head of the hammer would need tostrike to kill the serpent. One more heave on the fishing line and—Hymir’s  bait  knife  flashed, and  the  line  was  cut.  Jormungundr,  the serpent, reared up, high above the boat, then tumbled back into the sea.

Hymir and Thor’s Fishing Expedition