Angrboda, whose name translates to "the one who brings grief" or "she who offers sorrow," is a prominent giantess in Norse mythology. She resides in the land of the giants, Jotunheim. Angrboda is best known for her union with Loki, the trickster god, with whom she bore three infamous offspring that play pivotal roles in the apocalyptic events of Ragnarok (essentially end of the world):
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Hel: The half-dead and half-alive daughter who presides over the realm of the dead, also called Hel. She is appointed by Odin to oversee the souls of those who did not die heroically in battle. Here, I have illustrated her on the hem of Angrbodas dress, where the hands of the dead are reaching out.
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Jormungandr (The World Serpent): This immense serpent encircles the world, with its tail in its mouth, forming a boundary for the oceans. During Ragnarok, the serpent rises from the sea, causing chaos. Thor confronts and kills Jormungandr but dies from its venom shortly afterward. The serpent's symbolism I’ve added to her waist, as a nod to our cyclical nature as women.
- Fenrir: The gigantic wolf who grows to such a size that the gods decide to bind him. During their attempt, he bites off the hand of the god Tyr. At Ragnarok, Fenrir breaks free, swallowing Odin whole and later being killed by Odin's son, Víðarr. Fenrirs symbolism is connected to her here in my depiction.
Above her head she holds broken runes that read ‘Ragnarok’, since her own destructive nature and the prophecy of her children bring the event to occur.
Her children, while crucial to the Ragnarok narrative, could also be seen as symbolizing different facets of Angrboda's own essence: Hel's dominion over the ambiguities of life and death, Jormungandr's eternal cycle and boundary-setting with the encircling of the world, and Fenrir's raw, unbridled power and growth against constraints. Each child embodies aspects of the unpredictability and primordial nature that Angrboda herself represents.
In various interpretations and modern retellings, Angrboda has been viewed as a figure of strength, resilience, and even wisdom, one who understands the cyclical nature of existence and the inevitable balance of creation and destruction. She stands as a testament to the complex tapestry of forces that shape the Norse cosmos.