Níðhöggr

At Náströnd, Níðhöggr sucked the corpses of the dead. Völuspá named among them men who swore false oaths, murderers, and men who seduced another man’s close confidante. A wolf also tore at men there. Náströnd stood among the abodes of the dead and the realms of torture.

In one telling, the perjurers, murderers, and seducers entered a hall at Náströnd. Heavy streams of venom flowed over the perjurers and murderers. The venom came from troughs, and the waste-water fell upon the man who seduced another man’s wife. This telling placed the punishments in a different order. The perjurers and murderers endured the venom streams, while the seducer received their waste-water.

Níðhöggr’s dwelling also lay among rocks from which it carried its prey to Náströnd. After the world was destroyed, the earth appeared anew. On that renewed earth, Níðhöggr flew away from the rocks with dead bodies beneath its wings. No more corpses remained for it there, and its task ended.

The poem ended with a line about someone who had to sink. It did not name Níðhöggr in that line. Náströnd therefore held the image of Níðhöggr sucking the dead, while the renewed earth brought the later image of the creature leaving the rocks with corpses beneath its wings.

Níðhöggr gnawed the cold root of Yggdrasil that reached through Niflheim, near Hvergelmir. The ash tree rose through the centre of the worlds, and its branches spread over the nine worlds. Three great roots held it up. One passed through Niflheim, another passed through Jötunheim, and the third passed through Asgard. Níðhöggr worked at the root that reached into the lower regions.

An eagle sat above Yggdrasil, and a hawk named Vedfolner sat between its eyes. Ratatoskr, the squirrel, sprang up and down the tree. It carried words of envy and insult between the eagle in the branches and Níðhöggr below. The squirrel moved between the top of the tree and its root, and the hostility between the eagle and Níðhöggr continued as it carried their words.

Four stags leaped among the branches and bit the leaves. Their names were Dain, Dvalin, Duney and Durathro. Níðhöggr stayed in Hvergelmir with other creatures. Ratatoskr's name also carried a connection with boring and gnawing. In one telling, Ratatoskr's mouth gnawed a tunnel through which Odin escaped in the shape of an eagle after he took the mead treasure from the deep dales beneath the world tree's roots. In another, Ratatoskr's tooth let the foe of the gods near the root learn what the eagle at the top intended to do with the treasure. A third telling gave the name Ratatoskr to the boring tool that made the passage between Odin's world and Fjalar's halls.