Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Níðhöggr
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==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]]. {| width="99%" ! width="33%" | [https://web.archive.org/web/20090413124631/http://www3.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/vsp3.html Eysteinn Björnsson's edition] ! width="33%" | [http://www.voluspa.org/voluspa36-40.htm Bellows' translation] ! width="33%" | [[Ursula Dronke|Dronke]]'s translation |- | :Sal sá hon standa :sólu fjarri :Náströndu á, :norðr horfa dyrr. :Fellu eitrdropar :inn um ljóra, :sá er undinn salr :orma hryggjum. :Sá hon þar vaða :þunga strauma :menn meinsvara :ok morðvarga :ok þanns annars glepr :eyrarúnu. :Þar saug Niðhöggr :nái framgengna, :sleit vargr vera— :vituð ér enn, eða hvat ? | :A hall I saw, :far from the sun, :On Nastrond it stands, :and the doors face north, :Venom drops :through the smoke-vent down, :For around the walls :do serpents wind. :I there saw wading :through rivers wild :treacherous men :and murderers too, :And workers of ill :with the wives of men; :There Nithhogg sucked :the blood of the slain, :And the wolf tore men; :would you know yet more? | :A hall she saw standing :remote from the sun :on Dead Body Shore. :Its door looks north. :There fell drops of venom :in through the roof vent. :That hall is woven :of serpents' spines. :She saw there wading :onerous streams :men perjured :and wolfish murderers :and the one who seduces :another's close-trusted wife. :There Malice Striker sucked :corpses of the dead, :the wolf tore men. :Do you still seek to know? And what? | |} Níðhöggr/Níðhǫggr is also mentioned at the end of ''Völuspá'', where he is identified as a dragon and a serpent. {| width="99%" ! width="33%" | [https://web.archive.org/web/20090413124631/http://www3.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/vsp3.html Eysteinn Björnsson's edition] ! width="33%" | [http://www.voluspa.org/voluspa61-66.htm Bellows' translation] ! width="33%" | Dronke's translation |- | :Þar kømr inn dimmi :dreki fljúgandi, :naðr fránn, neðan :frá Niðafjöllum. :Berr sér í fjöðrum :—flýgr völl yfir— :Níðhöggr nái— :nú mun hon søkkvask. | :From below the dragon :dark comes forth, :Nithhogg flying :from [[Niðafjöll|Nithafjoll]]; :The bodies of men :on his wings he bears, :The serpent bright: :but now must I sink. | :There comes the shadowy :dragon flying, :glittering serpent, up :from Dark of the Moon Hills. :He carries in his pinions :—he flies over the field— :Malice Striker, corpses. :Now will she sink. | |} The context and meaning of this stanza are disputed. The most prevalent opinion is that the arrival of Níðhǫggr heralds [[Ragnarök]] 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.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Níðhöggr
(section)
Add topic