Carved from Ash Wood, this statue represents the god Thor in battle with Jormungand, the enormous sea serpent who encircles Midgard, the world of human civilization and his worst foe. Thor and Jormungand are destined to finally face each other during Ragnarok, when the two will put an end to each other.

Thor (Old English Đunor, Old High German Donar, Proto-Germanic *Þunraz, “Thunder”) is the son of the Allfather, Odin  and is one of the most prominent figures in Norse mythology. Known to be the protector of Midgard, the defender of the Aesir gods and their fortress, Asgard; Thor, the brawny thunder god, is the archetype of a loyal and honorable warrior, the ideal toward which the average human warrior aspired.

His most famous possession, which is depicted in this carving, is his hammer, Mjöllnir (“Lightning”). For the heathen Scandinavians, just as thunder was the embodiment of Thor, lightning was the embodiment of his hammer slaying giants as he rode across the sky in his goat-drawn chariot.