(, , , "Malice Biter/Striker"?), often

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

Nidhogg, is a Germanic dragon in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

who is said to gnaw at the roots of the world tree,

Yggdrasil Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...

, and is likewise associated with the dead in Hel and Niflheim.

Etymology

While the suffix of the name, ''-höggr'', literally "hewer", clearly means "biter, striker", etc, the prefix is not as clear. In particular, the length of the first vowel is not determined in the original sources. Some scholars prefer the reading "Striker in the Dark". In historical

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

society, níð was a term for a

social stigma Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...

, implying the loss of honor and the status of a

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

. Thus, its name might refer to its role as a horrific monster in its action of chewing the corpses of the inhabitants of Niflheim: those guilty of murder, adultery, and oath-breaking, thus something akin to "Malice Biter".

Orthography

In the standardized

Old Norse orthography The orthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, being written in both Runes, Runic and Latin alphabet, Latin alphabets, with many spelling conventions, variant letterforms, and unique letters and signs. In modern times, scholars established ...

, the name is spelled ', but the letter ' is frequently replaced with the Modern Icelandic ' for reasons of familiarity or technical expediency. The name can be represented in English texts with ''i'' for ''í''; ''th'', ''d'' or (rarely) ''dh'' for ''ð''; ''o'' for ''ǫ'' and optionally without ''r'' as in Modern Scandinavian reflexes. The

Modern Icelandic Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Since it is a West Scandinavian language, it ...

form ' is also sometimes seen, with special characters or similarly anglicized. The Danish forms ' and ' can also be encountered; or Norwegian ' and Swedish '. The English cognate would be Nithhewer.

''Prose Edda''

According to the ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first main part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'', after the initial Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' takes the form of ...

'' part of

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

's ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

'', Níðhǫggr is a being which gnaws one of the three roots of

Yggdrasill Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...

. It is sometimes believed that the roots are trapping the beast from the world. This root is placed over Niflheimr and Níðhǫggr gnaws it from beneath. The same source also says that " e squirrel called Ratatoskr runs up and down the length of the Ash, bearing envious words between the

eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

and Nídhǫggr he snake" In the ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...

'' section of the ''Prose Edda'' Snorri specifies Níðhǫggr as a serpent in a list of names of such creatures: :These are names for serpents: dragon, Fafnir, Jormungand, adder, Nidhogg, snake, viper, Goinn, Moinn, Grafvitnir, Grabak, Ofnir, Svafnir, masked one. Snorri's knowledge of Níðhǫggr seems to come from two of the Eddic poems: ''

Grímnismál ''Grímnismál'' (Old Norse: ; 'The Lay of Grímnir') is one of the mythological poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of ''Grímnir'', one ...

'' and ''

Völuspá ''Völuspá'' (also ''Vǫluspá'', ''Vǫlospá'', or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress') is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It dates back to the tenth century and tells the story from Norse Mythology of ...

''. Later in ''Skáldskaparmál'', Snorri includes Níðhǫggr in a list of various terms and names for swords.

Poetic Edda

The poem ''Grímnismál'' identifies a number of beings which live in Yggdrasill. The tree suffers great hardship from all the creatures which live on it. The poem identifies Níðhǫggr as tearing at the tree from beneath and also mentions Ratatoskr as carrying messages between Níðhǫggr and the eagle who lives at the top of the tree. Snorri Sturluson often quotes Grímnismál and clearly used it as his source for this information. The poem ''Völuspá'' mentions Níðhöggr/Níðhǫggr twice. The first instance is in its description of Náströnd. Níðhöggr/Níðhǫggr is also mentioned at the end of ''Völuspá'', where he is identified as a dragon and a serpent. The context and meaning of this stanza are disputed. The most prevalent opinion is that the arrival of Níðhǫggr heralds

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (also Ragnarok; or ; ) is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the Æsir, gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, a ...

and thus that the poem ends on a tone of ominous warning. It could be, however, as the prevalent themes of Norse mythology are those of change and renewal, that this could be a 'redemption' of the serpent, 'shedding' the corpses and beginning life anew, much like a macabre Phoenix, or perhaps, lifting the bodies of the righteous rulers mentioned two stanzas before (the stanza immediately before is considered spurious by translator Henry Adam Bellows), so that they can dwell in Gimle, and then either Níðhǫggr sinks, or the völva sinks, depending on the translation, and the poem ends. Níðhǫggr is not mentioned elsewhere in any ancient source.

Comparisons to Celtic culture

At least one Irish story, that of Conneda, tells of a man journeying into the otherworld and having to work his way past several giant snakes with names of different sins and transgressions. This would imply snakes consume, torment or punish the bad souls in Celtic culture. Similarly, Nidhogg is seen as the parent of all the snakes of the Norse underworld realm of Náströnd, separated from the rest of Helheim by the river Gjallar, which is made up of their acidic poison. This is where souls that are denied crossing on the Gjallarbrú wind up and where Loki is eventually imprisoned. Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. New York This is probably a reasonable explanation for his name.

References

Works cited

* Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.) (1916). ''The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson''. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Available a
Google Books
*Faulkes, Anthony (transl. and ed.) (1987). ''Edda'' (Snorri Sturluson).

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin and history The term ''everyman'' was used ...

. .

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nidhoggr Creatures in Norse mythology Germanic dragons Legendary serpents Yggdrasil