Introduction
Angrboda ("she who brings grief" or "boder of sorrow") is a giantess in Jotunheim, who, by Loki, becomes the mother of three of the most significant beings in the coming destruction of the world: the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Jormungandr, and the goddess Hel.
Family
- Husband: Loki
- Children: Fenrir, Jormungandr, Hel
Mother of monsters
Angrboda's three children by Loki are named directly in the Poetic Edda's Voluspa as being raised in Jotunheim, and the gods, on learning of prophecies concerning their dangerous futures, took action against each: Fenrir was eventually bound, Jormungandr was cast into the sea by Odin, and Hel was sent to rule over the underworld realm of the dead.
Role in Ragnarok
Because Angrboda's children, Fenrir, Jormungandr and, indirectly through her rule over the dead, Hel, are all central antagonists in the final battle of Ragnarok, Angrboda occupies a quiet but structurally crucial place in Norse eschatology as the mother of the forces that will help bring about the world's destruction.