Nidhogg- Norse DragonDragon"Corpse-Gnawer"

The Depths

Níðhöggr dwells beneath the root of Yggdrasil that plunges into Niflheim, near Hvergelmir, the roaring spring from which all the world's rivers first flowed. Eleven rivers pour from Hvergelmir, each named in the Grímnismál, and in the black water around the spring the dragon has coiled since before the gods shaped the cosmos.

He gnaws at the root of the World Tree. Snorri says he lies at the third root of the ash, surrounded by so many serpents that "no tongue can count them." The Grímnismál names the others: Góinn and Móinn, sons of Grafvitnir, alongside Grábakr, Grafvölluðr, Ófnir, and Sváfnir. They shall gnaw at the ash forever.

Of Yggdrasil's three roots, this one alone has no guardian. The root in Asgard is tended by the Norns. Mímir guards his well. The root in Niflheim faces the dragon's teeth.

The Norns' Tending

The three Norns who dwell beside the Well of Urðr pour white clay and sacred water over Yggdrasil's bark each day, healing what the gnawing has damaged. Snorri says the water from the well is so holy that everything it touches turns as white as the membrane inside an eggshell, and that the dew which falls from the tree is what people call honeydew, on which bees feed. Because of their tending, the ash remains evergreen despite the assault from below. But they cannot undo what has already been lost. The gnawing goes on.

Ratatoskr

An unnamed eagle perches in the topmost branches of Yggdrasil, a hawk called Veðrfölnir sitting between its eyes. Far below in the roots, Níðhöggr gnaws. Between them runs the squirrel Ratatoskr, who races up and down the trunk carrying insults from one to the other. The Grímnismál says Ratatoskr bears the eagle's words down to Níðhöggr, keeping their enmity alive across the full length of the tree. The two can never reach each other. So they wage a war of contempt, carried by a creature small enough to go where neither dragon nor eagle can follow.

Náströnd

Náströnd, "Corpse Shore," stands far from the sun, its doors facing north. The Völuspá describes walls woven from serpents' spines, venom dripping through the roof in poisonous streams. No fire warms the hall. No mead is served. Here are sent oath-breakers, murderers, and those who betrayed sacred bonds.

Níðhöggr feeds on their corpses. His name carries the same condemnation: níð is the Old Norse word for the violation of trust so severe that the offender was stripped of all honor and cast out from fellowship. Níðhöggr, "Malice Striker," devours those who earned the name his own name condemns.

The Last Vision

When Ragnarök comes, the World Tree shudders, weakened by ages of gnawing. The gods fight their appointed duels above: Thor against the serpent, Odin against the wolf. Below, Níðhöggr's war has already been won in the roots.

Then the fire dies. The earth rises green from the sea. The gods find golden game-pieces in the grass. And the last thing the Völuspá's seeress sees, before her vision sinks into silence, is a dark dragon flying upward from Niðafjöll, a gleaming serpent bearing corpses in his wings, passing over a world that was supposed to be reborn.

The serpent endures.