Seiðr Loom

creature

Níðhöggr

The dragon that gnaws the root of Yggdrasil from below and feeds on the dead at Náströnd; at the end of Völuspá it flies up with corpses on its wings.

Níðhöggr is a dragon, or serpent, that lives beneath the world tree. In Grímnismál it gnaws the roots of Yggdrasil while a hart bites the top and the trunk rots Grímnismál 35, and the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down the trunk carrying the eagle's words down to it Grímnismál 32. Snorri places it under the root that stands over Niflheim, at the spring Hvergelmir, surrounded by more serpents than anyone can count Gylfaginning 15-16. Snorri says Ratatoskr carries "envious words" between the two, so the eagle and the dragon are quarrelling Gylfaginning 16.

Feeder on the dead

Völuspá shows another side. At Náströnd, where oath-breakers and murderers wade through venom, "Nithhogg sucked the blood of the slain" Völuspá 39. Snorri quotes a line that seems to be about the same creature at Hvergelmir: "There the cursed snake tears dead men's corpses" Gylfaginning 52.

The last line

Níðhöggr has the last word in Völuspá. After the seeress has seen the green new world, the gods returning and the golden hall at Gimlé, she sees something else:

From below the dragon dark comes forth,Nithhogg flying from Nithafjoll;The bodies of men on his wings he bears,The serpent bright: but now must I sink.Völuspá 66

Readers disagree about what this means. Some take it as a sign that evil survives into the new world; others as the dragon carrying away the dead to judgment; others as the moment the seeress's trance breaks and the vision returns to the present. The poem does not explain it.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

The hart bites its top, its trunk is rotting, And Nithhogg gnaws beneath.
Grímnismál 35 Níðhöggr is one of the creatures that injure the world tree.
From above the words of the eagle he bears, And tells them to Nithhogg beneath.
Grímnismál 32 The squirrel Ratatoskr carries messages between the eagle and the dragon.
There Nithhogg sucked the blood of the slain
Völuspá 39 At Náströnd the dragon feeds on the punished dead.
From below the dragon dark comes forth, Nithhogg flying from Nithafjoll; The bodies of men on his wings he bears
Völuspá 66 The last image of Völuspá.
the third stands over Niflheim, and under that root is Hvergelmir, and Nídhöggr gnaws the root from below
Gylfaginning 15 Snorri places the dragon at the spring Hvergelmir.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • What Níðhöggr's appearance at the very end of Völuspá means is disputed: a lingering threat in the new world, a sign that evil is judged, or the seeress's vision fading back into the present (Völuspá 66).

Myths with Níðhöggr

The world reborn After Ragnarök a green earth rises from the sea. Surviving gods meet on Iðavöllr, Baldr returns from Hel, two humans come out of hiding, and a new sun rides the sky. The sources do not agree on who survives.

Related

Yggdrasil Yggdrasill The world-ash at the centre of the Norse cosmos: its roots reach the realms of gods, giants and the dead, and the gods hold court beneath it every day. Ratatoskr The squirrel that runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying words, and in Snorri envious words, between the eagle at the top and the dragon Níðhöggr at the roots. Hvergelmir The spring from which all rivers flow, fed by the dripping horns of a hart in Valhall; Snorri puts it in Niflheim under a root of Yggdrasil, swarming with serpents. Náströnd The 'corpse-shore', where a hall woven of serpents, far from the sun, drips venom on oath-breakers and murderers; the Norse sources' clearest place of punishment. Niflheimr The cold, misty world of the north in Snorri's creation story, source of the rivers and later Hel's realm; the poems know only Niflhel, a deep region of the dead. Ragnarök The foretold end of the gods' world: wolves swallow sun and moon, Loki and the monsters break loose, the gods fall in battle, Surtr burns the earth, and a new world rises.