Helheim was an afterlife for everybody else, anyone who did not die bravely by the sword (or axe, or spear), not just the wicked. They could also be taken by Freya to live in Folkvangr, a beautiful meadow that offered a similar paradise. There they would feast and fight until they were called on to fight again alongside the gods in the final battle of Ragnarok. They might be taken by the Valkyries to live in Valhalla, Odin’s hall in Asgard. They believed that warriors who died bravely in battle received an elevated existence after death. The Vikings believed in more than one afterlife. Nidhogg and the UnderworldĪccording to one poem, Nidhogg actually dwells in the world of Niflheim, which is located at the base of Yggdrasil and is sometimes conflated with Helheim, the underworld. This also causes great damage and pain to Yggdrasil, and if he manages to gnaw through the roots, Nidhogg may be able to pull all the worlds of the Norse cosmos back into chaos.

The dragon gnaws on the roots of the tree, probably in an attempt to escape his prison. A squirrel called Ratatoskr runs up and down the tree carrying malicious messages between the two. However, the snake does have an ongoing feud with the eagle that lives at the top of the World Tree. Nidhogg lives among the roots of Yggdrasil, which may also hold him a prisoner there, preventing him from venturing up the tree and causing havoc in the higher worlds. It is also uncertain whether we would classify Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, as a sea snake or a dragon. Nidhogg was a great serpent or a mighty dragon, as the Vikings did not distinguish between the two types of beasts. The term Nid in Old Norse was used to refer to things that are without honor. His name means “curse striker” or “he who strikes with malice” in old Norse. There is no question that Nidhogg was a fearsome creature in Norse mythology. Yggdrasil in the VKNG Collection Malice Striker An unnamed eagle lives among its highest branches, several stags roam around the tree eating its foliage, and Nighogg lives among its roots. Several animals also live within the tree, outside the individually contained worlds. Located within Yggdrasil are the nine worlds of Norse mythology, including Asgard, the world of the Asgardian gods somewhere in the high branches, Midgard, the world of men somewhere around the middle of the tree, and Helheim, the realm of the dead, located down among its roots. Its branches extend far up into the heavens, and its three mighty roots extend down into three wells which nourish the tree and its worlds. The Norse cosmos centers on the mighty ash tree called Yggdrasil.

Níðhöggr is also found as a heiti, or poetic term, for 'serpent' and even as the name of a sword.In Norse mythology, the dragon Nidhogg is one of the many creatures that dwell within Yggdrasil, the World Tree, that holds together the Norse cosmos.īut considering that dragons are always creatures of fear and menace in Viking stories, what does Nidhogg represent in Norse cosmology? The Norse Cosmos On his wings bears Nidhögg, flying o'er the plain, a corpse. In the poem's last stanza it comes flying out of Niðafjöll: There comes the dark dragon flying from beneath, the glistening serpent, from Nida-fells. In Völuspá, stanza 43, the serpent is described as sucking the blood from the corpses of the dead on Náströnd in Hel. He further specifies that Níðhöggr gnaws on the tree's third root, the standing over Niflheimr, and that it is one of the numerous serpents that live in Hvergelmir. Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning adds that the squirrel runs in both directions and that these are messages of hate. The squirrel Ratatoskr carries messages from the giant eagle perched in the topmost branches to Níðhöggr at the root. It is one of a number of animals that live in and around the world-tree. 'Malice-striker.' The serpent-like creature that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil, according to Grímnismál.

Nidhogg norse mythology