As a dedicated Christian as well as a Mythology enthusiast, I am so sorry for what Christianity did to the Norse myths. It is truly tragic the amount of information and stories that were lost due to the influence of Christianity.
I think it started with the codez regius and then it was hidden and snorri wrote his Edda by association... then the codex is "found" later.. the stories parallel. People then used the codex to strengthen the Edda's. I could be wrong but the codex is supposed to have been written by an Irish monk... so a Christian.. but I forget when and snorri was 13th century? Either way.. the last berserker was outlawed in the 11th century... so "pagan" belief was not strong... when either the codex or Edda was written... even the interpretation of nid as bad and nidhogg as evil... nidhoggr maintained order.. a balance.. and when the so called honorable are seen as oathbreakers... maybe by assimilating and foregoing their beliefs... into Christianity.. all nid rise up and ragnarok had already happened according to Christians because norse had ended... it's only told by Christians.. and repeated by people that have no actual connection to the past because religions coerced and forced celts and germanic people to assimilate... besides celtic, Gaul, germanic... these could simply be what the Romans called them.. we don't know what they called themselves... even the romans said celts ate babies during raids... propaganda since 300bc
Ratatoskr’s story is just so fun and funny. There are so many hilarious possible interpretations and I’m sure people have been telling them for centuries. Human humor hasn’t changed and it’s a fun way to feel connected to those who came before us.
I was always a fan of the interpretation that ratatoskr messed up the messages on purpose because he was just the kind of cunning jerk that thrived on watching discord unfold.
My personal headcannon is that Ratatoskr is actually quite clever, embellishing and adding to the insults serpent and eagle hurl at each other to keep their focus on each other, rather than than a tasty little squirrel that would normally be prey to them both...
Ocean: “How do I soften up the image of a cosmic being that chews on the very roots of existence while torturing the souls of the damned? I know! Puppy dog eyes!”
I always considered the demonizing of niðhoggr as a very Christian interpolation and assumption. Much of Norse myth doesn't often deal with strict boundaries of Good and evil which is a very Christian comparison. Rather the dragon is one of balance much like one that determines and weighs the souls of humans. Balancing the varied moral decisions one has made in the life. As well as chewing on the roots of the world tree to indicate that all things end in some fashion or another. You can't have one without another. And they are in constant flux
Ratatoskr is cosmic Twitter. Allowing for intelligent beings to lob pointless and ultimately destructive insults to one another while staying where they are
Ocean, we share the same head cannon. The fact a hawk and a snake both refuse to eat a squirrel seems proof that they are both tryin to keep the balance between each other... And there's another sky connect to sea metaphor. Water snakes and sky birds.
The comments on this are so insightful, its a major reason I love your videos. It brings out interesting perspectives. I never know where I fall on the Christian Influence spectrum for our surviving myths. Nidhoggr being tied back more to a cosmic balance (you wouldn't want oathbreakers and murderers vibing in Hel with the otherwise good natured folk who didn't go to Valhalla or Folkvangr or other afterlives). Maybe its a way to purge the parts of your soul that are out of balance. Maybe he just thinks evil people scream better when they're tortured. Who knows.
@@OceanKeltoi I can see why! Your videos are gold on their own (that is the chief reason I'm a patron) but the comment section is just the frosting on the cookie.
Yeah, the soul cleansing part is actually pretty fuckin spot on. Idk if its nidhoggr specifically, but when last time I did dmt, when I saw niflheim I saw just...endless amounts of the dead, writhing in agony. But it felt more like a dental cleaning than a torture. Like it was necessary, so that they could enter helheim. I actually got stuck there for a few hours, and cuz of an ego death I kinda had the same shit happen to me, but only for a few hours. Managed to shake a completely repressed childhood memory loose tho, and I've been able to actually deal with it and recognise some of my problems that I have mentally, that stems from it. The whole time I felt like I was going insane, like my neural connections were being ripped apart and put back together again. Though there wasn't any fear, as I couldnt even comprehend fear in niflheim
With the prevalence of serpents/dragons in Pagan mythology, I can't help but connect it to the Eastern spiritual concept of the Kundalini serpent. If we interpret mythology as spiritual allegory, then one could say that Yggdrasil represents the human soul, and Nidhoggr gnawing at its roots represents the dormant Kundalini serpent residing at the base of your spine (also the location of the Muladhara/root chakra).
In my experience, lots of stuff in the sagas thats not christian interpretation and bias, about creation and such are not allegories, but rather more like dumbed-down explanations of stuff. Like how odin and his brothers orchestrated evolution, or how heimdall is basically just a crispr baby. Like if heimdall tried to explain to someone from the bronze age, about genetic modification and stuff to explain how he was born from 9 moms and 1 dad he woulda almost defintely been like "fuck it, its blood magic", cuz to someone from that time period thats what it is, its fucking blood magic.
@@rolfjoergensen9903 I’ve been thinking that recently too. With recent discoveries in the mass=energy=information equivalence, it’s not hard to think of divinity as qubits and Biophotons that have transcended mass, at least in a Gnostic sense.
Thank you so much for doing a video on Nidhoggr. Being unable to purchase much literature I am forced to scour the internet for references. Now tis all in one place so...thanks!
There’s a passage in The Two Towers that I often think about where I think Tolkien may have been trying to evoke Nidhogg or something like him. When Gandalf the White tells Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli about his battle with Durin’s Bane beneath Moria, he says the following: “We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin’s folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. In that despair my enemy was my only hope, and I pursued him, clutching at his heel.” I love this mysterious, cosmically ominous, (yet almost completely incidental) language; to my instincts it initially sounded downright Lovecraftian, but I imagine that when Tolkien wrote it he had Nidhogg in mind.
Working with dragons was my first and remains one of my primary practices; I wouldn't have opened up to Norse paganism without having known dragon's first. So it's very cool to have a video discussing Norse dragons. Thanks Ocean!
Ocean, this was great. And it shows humans primal fear, as do most religions, of snake and their kind. Apparently, we can 'identify' with other animals. It's cute that a squirrel is the messenger, 👍🌊💙💙💙🌊🥰✌
Great video. The haunting realm covered in snakes you mentioned may also be the place known as Wyrmsele mentioned in the (Christian) Anglo-Saxon poem Judith.
If anyone is curious, I’d like to add a comparative insight from a Slavic polytheistic perspective that you might find interesting. In the Slavic cosmological view we also have a world tree with an eagle up in the branches and a serpent coiled in the roots. The eagle is a representation of Perun, god of thunder, sky, fire, and law and order (amongst other things). The serpent is a representation of Veles, god of the lowlands, water, magic, chaos, and the underworld (also amongst other things). Veles is said to creep up the world tree to steal from Perun, who then chases him back down to the underworld, restoring order. It’s important to note that despite being a god of trickery and chaos, Veles doesn’t carry the same negative and sinister connotations that Nidhoggr often seems to carries. He and Perun are two of the most important deities to most Rodnovers, and from my eyes, Veles bears much more similarity to Odin than to Nidhoggr. Both sides of this struggle are viewed as necessary components of the natural balance of things.
I'd say Alduin is more a fusion of Nidhoggr and the personification of Ragnorak, since he's supposed to appear at the end of time to end the old world and begin the new one. Only he never did that and instead became the god of a tyrannical cult as the overlord of all Dragons, until the Nords had decided enough was enough and overthrew them.
May Skadi fill you all with the thrill of the hunt so you may achieve your goals, may you move through winter unhindered. May Eir take you in her arms and heal your troubles away and may Lady Frigg and her son Lord Baldur bless light upon your paths. Faktisk, så være det. P.S thanks for the video bro.
It seems to me that Nidhoggr is similar in function to Amat from Egyptian mythology.This function is the disposal of "harmful material" to restore harmony.
I’d like to offer an alternative translation for “Nidhoggr,” which might affect your understanding, given that you do seem to be relying on this one particular translation for some of your interpretation. The name has two elements, “nið” and “höggr.” The translator you reference seems to agree with me on the latter: Höggr is noun form of Höggja, meaning to strike/cut/hew (also seen in the weapon name Höggspjót often rendered “hewing spear”). The second part, nið, is more ambiguous. Your translator is understanding this figuratively, the way that we see it used most dramatically in ON literature: níðinga for dishonor, unmanliness, sometimes treachery. Even so…”hateful” is a bit of a stretch. “Malice” or “evil” might better reflect Viking-age attitudes about this concept, but are still a little misleading to English speakers. However, there is another, simpler, more literal meaning of níð, which doesn’t usually get very much attention, but one which would have been in heard much more often in daily life: low/bottom/downwards. Níðhöggr is a monster who gnaws at the foundations of the world. I suggest that the monster’s name means, not “Strikes-with-hatred” but “Strikes beneath” …or, as a compromise “Low-Blow,” …or even “bottom-biter,” if that’s your thing.
I wonder if there is specific worship of nidhoggr as there is with the other large scale beings/creatures like fenrir in the modern day, it's an interesting thought
I never really knew much about Nidhoggr, but it seems like there isn't much to go on in the first place. That said, I did learn a little more from this video, which was also a lot of fun!
I really liked your video 🙂 here's my take on the good ol' Nidhoggr: Before Christianity arrived and messed everything up, serpents weren't viewed so badly.... Also, we know the Celts and the Vikings kinda believed in this sort of "lines" where magic was stronger, and those were called "the serpent's lines"... because dragons/snakes have always been tied to magic, death, life and rebirth. Like, from Ancient Egypt to Norway, snakes where kinda the "harbingers of Death AND Life". Because of all their traits: coming up from the underground the ground (like water - so life - does), shedding their skin (so rebirth), being venomous (so "bringers of death"), and being in touch with the earth's power (magic) thanks to their crawling all the time. Nidhoggr, in particular, he lives in the spring "from where all the waters come". Also, by an extension, "from where all the life - and all the serpents - come" (and his reign is said to be this pit full of serpents anyway, right?). So basically he's the Guardian of Death, in the sense that he guards on the cycle of life, and destroys the souls of the most evil folks bringing them to a new purpose. He's like, recycling the dead to be the fuel for new life to come (because again, all waters come form the cave of Niddhoggr, and thus, all life), in this eternal circle of consumption and re-shaping of matter. By the way, yes Nidhoggr does 'strike with hatred', but that's all Ratatoskr' fault. Nidhoggr is angered at the eagle (who, on top of Yggdrasill, moves the branches of the trees in this everlasting storm, to make the tree fall onto the great dragon), but that's all because the squirrel messed up the messages between the dragon and the eagle and they're now so fcking angry at each other, and Ratatoskr keeps feeding this hostility because it's convenient to him.
Your head canon is literally a SpongeBob episode, Naughty Nautical Neighbors. Nidhoggr and Vedrfolnir are SpongeBob and Patrick and Ratatoskr is Squidward in this scenario but the difference is Ratatoskr is just being forgetful, how fitting for Ocean to accidentally reference a SpongeBob episode 😂
I've heard somewhere that when Nidhogg gnaws on Yggdrasil's root, he also eats the clay the Norns pack onto it. I view the initial root gnawing as a cleansing and gnawing the orlaeg clay as a reason to pray to him to heal trauma or forgive one's past mistakes.
One of the things i've considered about Nidhoggr is the first part of his name Nid, which i've also seen using Níð (Nith) which is also seen in the Níðthing curse...a curse which essentially makes you "nothing." While I'm not sure what "hoggr" translates to, I do wonder if Nidhoggr might essentially be the "dragon of nothing(ness)" who consumes both the roots of Yggdrasil and the Souls of the oathbreakers, the kinslayers, etc.
honestly best brief breakdown i've encountered on the subject. you made a good balance between the source material and the "taken with a grain of salt" approach. i haven't often seen that many Heathen meld logic and faith as effectively, at least not in a piece of media. as for my boy Nidhoggr and various serpent kin, i happen to know thing or two. i might be willing to share some, but i'm curious regarding you and your viewerships' opinions on UPG (unverified personal gnosis) and VPG (verified personal gnosis) before i volunteer such info. as for the vamp query: i'd have to say jein. IN GENERAL, most vamps feed primarily on the essences of the LIVING. however, when you get into entities that qualify as a manner of lich, or were perhaps never alive, being animated from conception by death force (is there a Norse word for the opposite of Ond?) well, things can get complicated. yes, the same dynamic, of an entity vacuuming animating force from another is vampiric, but i would say as Nidhoggr seems to be (and gives me the impression from our interactions) as having been made out of dead things, and hence not truly alive, so unable to fit the definition we have in the occult to describe the kinds of vamps we generally encounter: which are death attuned LIVING things, the issue is i don't think we have specific enough words for creatures like Nidhoggr. not in human words anyway. death sucker? shade breathers? vnder-gaap? i'm just throwing out ideas at this point. one thing i should reveal for certain, which multiple practitioners have confirmed from my own observation, is that Nidhoggr serves a manner of director of entropy and recycling in the 9 Worlds' universe. corpses and all matter that dies is eaten. this pattern is seen as the entropy which feeds: rot becoming fertility. "blood makes the grass grow green." an old medieval bardic song if i recall. souls pass through Nidhoggr, the most corrupt destroyed, the others being sort of cleaned before being passed to the peaceful sectors of Hel. further deep water is associated with being a gateway to Underworld realms in most mythos world round, as well as serpent guardian. i can share more of my experiences, but i'm testing the waters with this much info honestly.
The animals living in Yggdrasil are corresponding really well whit the Hindu chakras and so do a lot of there gods and story's whit the Indo-Europeans. The eagle whit the hawk between his eyes corresponds whit the Ajna chakra 'the third eye of Shiva'.
also, i have no idea if youve ever seen adventure time, but princess bubblegum's brother "neddy" is a clear reference to nidhoggr and worth checking out imo!
What I’ve distinguished between my research and some stories that have been passed down from Germanic family is the world tree is both a cosmic tree and a tree with is us that connects us to the universe. The world tree within us represents what is equivalent to Hindu Chakras. The Eagle that sits up top the tree is our third eye awareness. Nidhogg represents our fear and regret. Ratatiskr is the messenger between them, meaning it’s our inner conflict between what we desire and what we fear or regret in life. Asgard represents our mind, Midgard our heart, Alfheim is our ancestors hereditary connections, Vanaheim is our Reproduction and Human Nature connection, Muspelheim is our action, determination, chaos. Nifelheim is our absence of feeling, Apathy if you will. Jotunheim is our natural change such as time and aging. Svartalfheim is our cellular construction where we manifest our desire. Helheim is our root to our creation, devourer of existence, our metabolism.
Something that was missed is that Nidhoggr is the representation of chaos, he ate/was trapped in the roots of Yggdrasil to send the universe into chaos, which contradicts that my sources also say that he had a beach where the damned would wash up onto( and he would eat). So it’s a very confusing topic since it does conradict itself
The question at the end: No? Most vampirism is supposed to be of blood, while the devouring of souls is associated with demons and some ghouls or the like. Nidhoggr could count as a demon god or something of the sort.
The description and imagery of Nidhoggr and Hevrlgelmir remind me of Celtic Mythology a bit like the Irish god Crom Cruach another terrifying serpent death dragon, though might have originally been a sun fertility god. Crom the crooked and bloody one is depicted as a dark god of human sacrifice, death and decay which is common symbolism for serpents in Celtic myth, the creepy crawly slithering things that wriggle and crawl up from the underworld to break down the rotting and decaying things into new and fertile land that life may grow from again. I wonder if there's some overlap, either an ancient root or maybe cultural exchange either from the Viking invasions or brought over from the Christianization of Scandinavia imported by the Irish monks.
I sometimes think that nidhoggr represents all the fears and insecurity’s we have and the negative thoughts that lay in our base consciousness. Basically nidhogger nauwls at our roots but obviously the eagle is out higher self in a way We have to live with both of these at times one dominates and Ratatosk is the communicator between these aspects of our selfs Excuse me shit spelling
I read of this malevolent Serpent that it would outlive Ragnarok to rise one day in the far future to start a new Ragnarok and that it would be him and his serpents mortals and gods would have to confront.
I really wish there was more information to go on in regards to Niđhoggr. Though I wonder if my motivation is purely curiosity, or latent Christianity searching for moral ramifications in religion.
Dude Ii LOVE your anti-cosmic-conflict take on the dialog between the Serpent and the Eagle by way of the dubious middle-man! I don't see evidence of any Battle or Conflict in the Divine and/or Cosmic realms, so I think it follows Wisdom to read into our myths more of the Savage Harmony that seems more prevalent in the Cosmic (thus, Divine) structure, from our vantage on Midgard, Earth. The Slavic Serpent+Eagle "dialog" across a cosmic tree already showed signs of their dispute becoming more of a discussion a few centuries back! Perun and Veles are, after all, brothers, who share the responsibility of raising the Sun God each year. They avoid the middle man, Perun sends His messages to Veles in the form of lightning bolts blasting through trees, while Veles seems to stretch snakes out over stones in full view of the sky (snakes sunning themselves) perhaps in some form of script? to send His tidings heavenward. Some of the magical birds of Slavic folklore may be the messengers of Veles to the Sky God as well, if the ophid-a-bet thing doesn't fit you...
Nidhog being a dragon that is wher all waters come from reminds me of the Indo-European idea of the dragon that hords all waters until a hero re takes it.
I think messenger has bigger role then that. Maybe it is purpose for misinterpreted message because message from dragon can be really dangerous and could break even existence or mind to someone who can actually understand meaning of it. So they need messenger who does not understand true meaning but is able to filter out power of message.
Hello I used to be a Christian, but because of your channel I am not any more(Well I still believe in the Christian God, but I also believe in other deities and will be worshipping them more so) I am drawn to Norse paganism and Germanic paganism as a whole as well as Celtic paganism(though much less, so)
I think Nidhoggr could probably be considered a vampire of sorts, but I suppose it depends on your definition of vampire. My question is: can the Nidhoggr be considered a god/deity?
Is Nidhoggr a numinous being? It would appear so. However, I would caution against diving headfirst into giving Nidhoggr any kind of cultus as it's quite possible that he is not the kind of deity that can be approached without proper boundaries established. I'm not saying he is not deserving of respect or worship but I will say that you shouldn't expect an all-consuming death dragon to act like anything other than an all-consuming death dragon. I'd suggest speaking to trusted devotees of the Rokkr to see how they generally go about engaging with Nidhoggr as it is my understanding that they do engage in cultus in honor of him. Now, please understand that when I say there should probably be boundaries I do not mean you should be disrespectful. I mean, in and of itself, that'd probably be a really dumb thing to do. You (a puny human) couldn't intimidate him even if there was a whole army of you. I wouldn't bet on your chances of winning that fight. What I mean is to respectfully make it clear that you can really only give an inch despite the fact that he'd probably prefer the mile. He's going to want the mile. He's an all-consuming primordial dragon of death. It's his purpose in life to take the mile. That's just how it is and there's nothing you can do about that except give him something you are capable of giving in place of the mile. Do you get what I mean?
@@WildMen4444 I do, if watch some more of Ocean's or WindinTheWorldTrees videos, they covers the idea of reciprocity several times, and what is likely to be able to be held to reciprocity. I do worship Hel, but their is logical praxis for that, I wouldn't consider Niđhoggr to be a diety that you can build reciprocity with, for the reasons you mentioned above. But I could be wrong too.
My main result with the basics of Ygdrasil, and the nine worlds of this mythology is Even the giants don't scare me I've read a few of the well hidden myths of this planet being created and Elves and Giants sharing a few things, But Nidhogg / Nidhoggr? his explanations only give me a vision of a planet dragon relaxing unless in serious trouble. Patiently shown self support and defense being done thoughtfully that's what some of the oldest dragons make me think of instead.
I wonder if the hawk between the Eagles eyes represent seeing the truth? A way to interpret the squirrels intensions., which sound like stress! The only prey among predators.
In Christianity the devil is sometimes refranced as a dragon and a serpent so maybe during the Christianization of the mythology they saw a torturous dragon and were like yep that's Satan wink wink hint hint, idk that's just my two sense
I recently read a fiction book about faries, Loki, and some unknown evil trying to destroy all the realms in which Nidhoggr was described as sucking the blood from the dead sent to Hel so they would be weak, pale, and docile until needed for her army at Ragnarok--so, yes, I would say Nidhoggr could be classed as a vampire. It made me wonder did the Norse or Germanic peoples really see Nidhoggr as such, or did the author make it up. But looking at the actual limited info. about Nidhoggr, it does seem the author pilfered that info. from one or two of the better-known sources on Germanic mythology.
The first important question is where the Ask Yggdrasil is standing and where it´s roots are located. Yggdrasil goes through the 3 realms of Utgard, Asgard and Midgard and as Utgard and Asgard above Midgard, the Earth, some celestial imagery must be included in the mythical understanding. I have the mythical Utgard to be astronomically connected with Milky Way contour images on the Earth’s two celestial hemispheres, and I have Asgard to describe the mythical motion of Sun, Moon, Planets, Stars and Star Constellations. The Norse mythical Níðhǫggr Serpent or Dragon resembles the nocturnal Milky Way band observable all around the Earth. The “root” of the Milky Way is it´s center located in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation on the southern hemisphere. When Níðhǫggr ”gnaws at a root of Yggdrasil”, this mean cosmologically that it´s head is located by the Milky Way center and the root of Yggdrasil. This astronomical and cosmological myth has nothing to do with an evil snake or cosmic catastrophes, or an "apocalyptic death dragon" of but it has been biblically skewed to be a dualistic telling and psychologized beyond recognizable matters for modern humans who have lost much of the natural contact to the scenarios above the Earth, which is embedded in the cultural myths.
Devouring or sucking out life force/soul no more makes Nidhoggr a vampire than it does Ammut, in Kemetic tradition. They both play a necessary role in their respective understandings. The role a god plays (and remember, there's usually a wider range of roles played by a deity figure than a god is given credit for) has nothing to do with the feeding habits of an entirely different category of beings.
With the descriptions, I remember something from the bible's Old Testament like the Jewish hell or gehinnom?? it's like literally a place where the dead is because of the worms but it's kind of same with Nidhogg's abode
The question about Niidhog being considered vampiric is directly correlative to which mythological catagorization of Vampire your referencing. Honestly, if I may be so bold, though Niidhog has vampiric characteristics he lacks any of the other earmark identifiers of vampiric beings. In my observation, niidhog basically more akin to a Litch. Question is... if he is a litch, what is the phylactory that contains his soul? Who knows... maybe his phylactory is housed inside Yggdrasil's core, which is why he gnaws on the tree's roots.
Nice Video!!! Question ✋ is Nastrond a valid place description for the LINGWorms,,, vacation home? Burrow or home of why Ingwas is in his name? Thank you for your time: only a small mishap if you note absence of mind; maybe community communication is okay with safeties in place (Safety first)
One thing I’ve noticed with dragons/great serpents, was interesting to me. It’s likely christianized tales… The oldest religions are serpent/dragon cults which can be traced back to Africa between 75,000-100,000 years ago. This could also be why we have tales of dragons on a global level. Not Norse, but Serbian myth actually portrays them as mostly beneficial to man. The Zmaj protected crops from spirits behind natural forces that would destroy crops, protecting the livelihood of villagers. Vales, the Slavic horned god occasionally takes a “serpent” form. One of Vales tasks is to take souls of the fallen for to the underworld guarded by a Zmaj. Cernunnos bears a “horned serpent”. In some myths, dragons guard the Celtic otherworld. Now let’s stop and think because while there are variations in tales of Indo-European traditions, all of them are still fairly similar. So studying tales of various European cultures is often a good way to reconstruct what may have actually been thought because “serpent worship” actually originated in Africa then migrated globally over quite a massive frame in time. When you compare the other two thoughts behind the Slavic horned god and Celtic horned god, you can get a different notion of serpents and dragons guarding afterlife worlds, and where not apart of “punishing humans” but protecting the realms their souls resides in. So it is entirely possible Nidhogg has been villanized when if fact he may have played a very different role.
My Ratatoskr head canon is that he is just a messy little guy who just keeps stirring the pot for their own amusement. I do it at the strip club where I work... Like, "Yes girl, you know that wrench said her 73 year old granny dance better than you do."
personaly i beleave in a verry mater of fact way, so i interparate the storys of religion a bit more literal. In this example i beleave that Nidhoggr is a way to explain the grusome decomposing of the body, the time when our bodys if not preserved would naturly be eaten by worms and other yukky insects and bacteries. SO i think nidhoggr is just a way of saying many worms decomposing/eating your body after death.
It's kinda odd, but the idea Arith Harger put forward that the serpent Jormungandr was actually an earth spirit of some kind, or the fylgja of the earth, something like that; it makes me wonder if the idea he also had that Thor never would have hurt Jormungandr is false but the idea that Jormungadr themselves was a earth spirit *was* correct. It's just that they mixed up the serpents that Thor fights at Ragnarok. That's one idea I had while watching the video, but I could be completely wrong obviously. Though it would make sense for the fishing story as well, where Thor instead of fishing in midgard's oceans, was instead maybe trying to free the spring waters at the base of yggdrasil from Nidhoggr? It matches with the historical "indo-european" myth structure of thundergods fighting snakey dragons. Though, again, could be SO wrong haha
Your UPG or Ratatoskr reminds me of the Key and Peele Texting meme 😆 Still, I can’t help but wonder if the conflict between Audhumbla and Ymir carries on through Eagle and Dragon.
@@deismaccountant It's a strange event, isn't it? I was recently reading an interpretation of this where the idea is simply an imported concept from the Christianized 'fettered devil' trope that got overmapped onto Loki / Utgard Loki, but I'm still looking into it myself. There's a wealth of scholastic discussion on Loki when it comes to what beliefs about him may have existed in the past.
Thanks for the late night/early morning thoughts ocean. No nidhogg is not a vampire vampires while also sucking life force it’s biological, while nidhogg is “spiritual.” In a way, he’d be more akin to soul eater or ap*p can’t say it to respect all the kemetics who may be checking out your content
It seems to me that Nidhggr, according to scholar Rudolph's translation, as " the one striking full of hatred and every passage of him invokes a sense of cosmic horror", that part " striking horror" sounds kinda Lovecraftian in essence. I wouldn't say Anti-Cosmic but sounds more Lovecraftian. And I can't help noticing how much dualism (as opposing forces at war against each other) between Nidhoggr and The Eagle reflected in there, or is it really that Ratatoskr is the one to blame. If the latter would be the case then the concept of duality is null, therefore the two sides would be (or are) two complementary forces working with each other instead of going at it against each other. And if that's the case then truly the concept of dualism applied in Norse Myths came from christians, or, from scholars who were somehow influenced by Christianity, since they were the ones who reinterpreted the sagas; starting with Snorri Sturlusson. Am I right? My question is: how can one separate the christian influence from the heathen ones to grasp the heathen essential knowledge from these sagas? Now putting this side....."Dragging it out". Come on man 😂😂😂. This made my day. 😂😂. Don't stop bringing humor to your videos; makes them more enjoyable so I thank you for this👍👍👍.
Hi Ocean I have a question because of the Christian influence of the text sometime it’s hard to tell what’s true or false about Norse legends how do you guys deal with balder because I saw a video awhile back from another your that talks about mythology a lot and he said there are two versions of balder one is the Jesus like figure another is a warrior and kinda violent
The other myth of Baldur is from Saxo, and he’s very much a human in the story. You can find it in Saxo’s text. Info on that text is in the vid description actually.
I would count nidhoggr as a soul wrath, that feed on the souls of the damned. I might know some who would count and breeder if such beast? but he doesn’t know it yet?! Like might pythons with venom. A wyrm like nidhoggr chewing at the fabric of reality might have the Norns miffed? Have them say “there worse than the moths”? “That the ……… hole this week”!? Such dark matter? Such quantum physics? A beast that dines of the subatomic structures that hold the world together. I wonder what the wyrm party going to look like? A great hall that’s pulsating with the bodies of snakes? Daring the foolish to enter?
i have a suggestion: but its okay if you dont want to do it if you havent already can you make a video on thor and hymir or maype just a video on tyr in general
As a dedicated Christian as well as a Mythology enthusiast, I am so sorry for what Christianity did to the Norse myths. It is truly tragic the amount of information and stories that were lost due to the influence of Christianity.
I think it started with the codez regius and then it was hidden and snorri wrote his Edda by association... then the codex is "found" later.. the stories parallel. People then used the codex to strengthen the Edda's. I could be wrong but the codex is supposed to have been written by an Irish monk... so a Christian.. but I forget when and snorri was 13th century? Either way.. the last berserker was outlawed in the 11th century... so "pagan" belief was not strong... when either the codex or Edda was written... even the interpretation of nid as bad and nidhogg as evil... nidhoggr maintained order.. a balance.. and when the so called honorable are seen as oathbreakers... maybe by assimilating and foregoing their beliefs... into Christianity.. all nid rise up and ragnarok had already happened according to Christians because norse had ended... it's only told by Christians.. and repeated by people that have no actual connection to the past because religions coerced and forced celts and germanic people to assimilate... besides celtic, Gaul, germanic... these could simply be what the Romans called them.. we don't know what they called themselves... even the romans said celts ate babies during raids... propaganda since 300bc
Genocide is tragic yes
@@ajackass5950 Yes but what does that have to do with anything?
@@theperapants Rome was like the first tabloid when it came to propaganda concerning other civilizations.
@@GigaMoth so Rome... influenced the Irish monk and the Christian snorri
Ratatoskr’s story is just so fun and funny. There are so many hilarious possible interpretations and I’m sure people have been telling them for centuries. Human humor hasn’t changed and it’s a fun way to feel connected to those who came before us.
I was always a fan of the interpretation that ratatoskr messed up the messages on purpose because he was just the kind of cunning jerk that thrived on watching discord unfold.
Right?! I’m always disappointed in how little love Ratatoskr gets, he’s one of the most random aspects of Norse mythology lol.
My personal headcannon is that Ratatoskr is actually quite clever, embellishing and adding to the insults serpent and eagle hurl at each other to keep their focus on each other, rather than than a tasty little squirrel that would normally be prey to them both...
Nidhogg is like an timeless cosmic dragon who has lived through countless cycles of Ragnaröks..
Norse Eldritch Horror Dragon Snake is the coolest. Agreed on the goth vibes, perfect [chef's kiss]
Ocean: “How do I soften up the image of a cosmic being that chews on the very roots of existence while torturing the souls of the damned? I know! Puppy dog eyes!”
Of course right after I get a Niðhoggr tapestry, Ocean puts a video out
I always considered the demonizing of niðhoggr as a very Christian interpolation and assumption. Much of Norse myth doesn't often deal with strict boundaries of Good and evil which is a very Christian comparison. Rather the dragon is one of balance much like one that determines and weighs the souls of humans. Balancing the varied moral decisions one has made in the life. As well as chewing on the roots of the world tree to indicate that all things end in some fashion or another. You can't have one without another. And they are in constant flux
This is almost exactly how I interpret it too.
@@spikeblack5755 You don't have to be evil to be destructive and corruptive. He probably just operates on a whole other scale.
Ratatoskr is cosmic Twitter. Allowing for intelligent beings to lob pointless and ultimately destructive insults to one another while staying where they are
Ocean, we share the same head cannon. The fact a hawk and a snake both refuse to eat a squirrel seems proof that they are both tryin to keep the balance between each other... And there's another sky connect to sea metaphor. Water snakes and sky birds.
With the long lost Audumbla somewhere between.
@@deismaccountant She's probably somewhere in the Milky Way.
@@Phantom86d and from the Milky Way comes our breath of life!
The comments on this are so insightful, its a major reason I love your videos. It brings out interesting perspectives. I never know where I fall on the Christian Influence spectrum for our surviving myths. Nidhoggr being tied back more to a cosmic balance (you wouldn't want oathbreakers and murderers vibing in Hel with the otherwise good natured folk who didn't go to Valhalla or Folkvangr or other afterlives). Maybe its a way to purge the parts of your soul that are out of balance. Maybe he just thinks evil people scream better when they're tortured. Who knows.
I'm super proud of the comment section on this channel tbh
@@OceanKeltoi I can see why! Your videos are gold on their own (that is the chief reason I'm a patron) but the comment section is just the frosting on the cookie.
Yeah, the soul cleansing part is actually pretty fuckin spot on. Idk if its nidhoggr specifically, but when last time I did dmt, when I saw niflheim I saw just...endless amounts of the dead, writhing in agony. But it felt more like a dental cleaning than a torture. Like it was necessary, so that they could enter helheim. I actually got stuck there for a few hours, and cuz of an ego death I kinda had the same shit happen to me, but only for a few hours. Managed to shake a completely repressed childhood memory loose tho, and I've been able to actually deal with it and recognise some of my problems that I have mentally, that stems from it. The whole time I felt like I was going insane, like my neural connections were being ripped apart and put back together again. Though there wasn't any fear, as I couldnt even comprehend fear in niflheim
With the prevalence of serpents/dragons in Pagan mythology, I can't help but connect it to the Eastern spiritual concept of the Kundalini serpent.
If we interpret mythology as spiritual allegory, then one could say that Yggdrasil represents the human soul, and Nidhoggr gnawing at its roots represents the dormant Kundalini serpent residing at the base of your spine (also the location of the Muladhara/root chakra).
In my experience, lots of stuff in the sagas thats not christian interpretation and bias, about creation and such are not allegories, but rather more like dumbed-down explanations of stuff. Like how odin and his brothers orchestrated evolution, or how heimdall is basically just a crispr baby. Like if heimdall tried to explain to someone from the bronze age, about genetic modification and stuff to explain how he was born from 9 moms and 1 dad he woulda almost defintely been like "fuck it, its blood magic", cuz to someone from that time period thats what it is, its fucking blood magic.
Or that gnawing could be the feeling of guilt?
Kundalini energy/information is "food" for the Gods.
@@rolfjoergensen9903 I’ve been thinking that recently too. With recent discoveries in the mass=energy=information equivalence, it’s not hard to think of divinity as qubits and Biophotons that have transcended mass, at least in a Gnostic sense.
“Niðoggr is definitely the coolest kaiju in Norse mythology.” 💀💀💀
Thank you so much for doing a video on Nidhoggr. Being unable to purchase much literature I am forced to scour the internet for references. Now tis all in one place so...thanks!
There’s a passage in The Two Towers that I often think about where I think Tolkien may have been trying to evoke Nidhogg or something like him. When Gandalf the White tells Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli about his battle with Durin’s Bane beneath Moria, he says the following:
“We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin’s folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. In that despair my enemy was my only hope, and I pursued him, clutching at his heel.”
I love this mysterious, cosmically ominous, (yet almost completely incidental) language; to my instincts it initially sounded downright Lovecraftian, but I imagine that when Tolkien wrote it he had Nidhogg in mind.
Working with dragons was my first and remains one of my primary practices; I wouldn't have opened up to Norse paganism without having known dragon's first. So it's very cool to have a video discussing Norse dragons. Thanks Ocean!
Ocean, this was great. And it shows humans primal fear, as do most religions, of snake and their kind. Apparently, we can 'identify' with other animals. It's cute that a squirrel is the messenger, 👍🌊💙💙💙🌊🥰✌
Great video. The haunting realm covered in snakes you mentioned may also be the place known as Wyrmsele mentioned in the (Christian) Anglo-Saxon poem Judith.
If anyone is curious, I’d like to add a comparative insight from a Slavic polytheistic perspective that you might find interesting. In the Slavic cosmological view we also have a world tree with an eagle up in the branches and a serpent coiled in the roots. The eagle is a representation of Perun, god of thunder, sky, fire, and law and order (amongst other things). The serpent is a representation of Veles, god of the lowlands, water, magic, chaos, and the underworld (also amongst other things). Veles is said to creep up the world tree to steal from Perun, who then chases him back down to the underworld, restoring order.
It’s important to note that despite being a god of trickery and chaos, Veles doesn’t carry the same negative and sinister connotations that Nidhoggr often seems to carries. He and Perun are two of the most important deities to most Rodnovers, and from my eyes, Veles bears much more similarity to Odin than to Nidhoggr. Both sides of this struggle are viewed as necessary components of the natural balance of things.
I wonder if this is where skyrim got the idea for Alduin the world eater. The large black dragon who is harbinger of the end.
absolutely inspired by Nidhoggr. There's no doubt that Skyrim was borrowing a ton from Norse Myth.
I'd say Alduin is more a fusion of Nidhoggr and the personification of Ragnorak, since he's supposed to appear at the end of time to end the old world and begin the new one. Only he never did that and instead became the god of a tyrannical cult as the overlord of all Dragons, until the Nords had decided enough was enough and overthrew them.
May Skadi fill you all with the thrill of the hunt so you may achieve your goals, may you move through winter unhindered.
May Eir take you in her arms and heal your troubles away and may Lady Frigg and her son Lord Baldur bless light upon your paths.
Faktisk, så være det.
P.S thanks for the video bro.
It seems to me that Nidhoggr is similar in function to Amat from Egyptian mythology.This function is the disposal of "harmful material" to restore harmony.
Norse Kaiju! ...For the Algorithm!
I’d like to offer an alternative translation for “Nidhoggr,” which might affect your understanding, given that you do seem to be relying on this one particular translation for some of your interpretation.
The name has two elements, “nið” and “höggr.”
The translator you reference seems to agree with me on the latter: Höggr is noun form of Höggja, meaning to strike/cut/hew (also seen in the weapon name Höggspjót often rendered “hewing spear”).
The second part, nið, is more ambiguous. Your translator is understanding this figuratively, the way that we see it used most dramatically in ON literature: níðinga for dishonor, unmanliness, sometimes treachery. Even so…”hateful” is a bit of a stretch. “Malice” or “evil” might better reflect Viking-age attitudes about this concept, but are still a little misleading to English speakers.
However, there is another, simpler, more literal meaning of níð, which doesn’t usually get very much attention, but one which would have been in heard much more often in daily life: low/bottom/downwards.
Níðhöggr is a monster who gnaws at the foundations of the world. I suggest that the monster’s name means, not “Strikes-with-hatred” but “Strikes beneath”
…or, as a compromise “Low-Blow,”
…or even “bottom-biter,” if that’s your thing.
Two enemies sending a squirrel back and forth with messages sounds like an old married couple.
Very "Catholic couple that should have divorced six years ago"
I wonder if there is specific worship of nidhoggr as there is with the other large scale beings/creatures like fenrir in the modern day, it's an interesting thought
I never really knew much about Nidhoggr, but it seems like there isn't much to go on in the first place. That said, I did learn a little more from this video, which was also a lot of fun!
I really liked your video 🙂
here's my take on the good ol' Nidhoggr:
Before Christianity arrived and messed everything up, serpents weren't viewed so badly....
Also, we know the Celts and the Vikings kinda believed in this sort of "lines" where magic was stronger, and those were called "the serpent's lines"... because dragons/snakes have always been tied to magic, death, life and rebirth. Like, from Ancient Egypt to Norway, snakes where kinda the "harbingers of Death AND Life". Because of all their traits: coming up from the underground the ground (like water - so life - does), shedding their skin (so rebirth), being venomous (so "bringers of death"), and being in touch with the earth's power (magic) thanks to their crawling all the time.
Nidhoggr, in particular, he lives in the spring "from where all the waters come". Also, by an extension, "from where all the life - and all the serpents - come" (and his reign is said to be this pit full of serpents anyway, right?). So basically he's the Guardian of Death, in the sense that he guards on the cycle of life, and destroys the souls of the most evil folks bringing them to a new purpose. He's like, recycling the dead to be the fuel for new life to come (because again, all waters come form the cave of Niddhoggr, and thus, all life), in this eternal circle of consumption and re-shaping of matter.
By the way, yes Nidhoggr does 'strike with hatred', but that's all Ratatoskr' fault. Nidhoggr is angered at the eagle (who, on top of Yggdrasill, moves the branches of the trees in this everlasting storm, to make the tree fall onto the great dragon), but that's all because the squirrel messed up the messages between the dragon and the eagle and they're now so fcking angry at each other, and Ratatoskr keeps feeding this hostility because it's convenient to him.
I learned a lot from this video about that old grumpy dragon serpent! Cheers! You got yourself a new subscriber ..
OG Deathwing!
Your head canon is literally a SpongeBob episode, Naughty Nautical Neighbors. Nidhoggr and Vedrfolnir are SpongeBob and Patrick and Ratatoskr is Squidward in this scenario but the difference is Ratatoskr is just being forgetful, how fitting for Ocean to accidentally reference a SpongeBob episode 😂
Surprised you didn’t mention the conflict between Nidhogg and the Eagle as an echo of the Sky God vs Underworld Snake myth… ⛈
whoa, I just realized that lines up uncannily well with Thunder Birds and Horned Water Serpents in First Nations traditions
Love me some dragons so this video is really fitting to watch. 10/10 would watch again
A friend recently got me Northgard and I've been loving it. Especially more so now that I can appreciate that image of Ratatoskr.
Not a vampire, a Lich Dragon feeding on his wyrm food!
I've heard somewhere that when Nidhogg gnaws on Yggdrasil's root, he also eats the clay the Norns pack onto it. I view the initial root gnawing as a cleansing and gnawing the orlaeg clay as a reason to pray to him to heal trauma or forgive one's past mistakes.
can we elect keltoi to be the god of puns
IKRRRRRR!!!????
One of the things i've considered about Nidhoggr is the first part of his name Nid, which i've also seen using Níð (Nith) which is also seen in the Níðthing curse...a curse which essentially makes you "nothing." While I'm not sure what "hoggr" translates to, I do wonder if Nidhoggr might essentially be the "dragon of nothing(ness)" who consumes both the roots of Yggdrasil and the Souls of the oathbreakers, the kinslayers, etc.
honestly best brief breakdown i've encountered on the subject. you made a good balance between the source material and the "taken with a grain of salt" approach. i haven't often seen that many Heathen meld logic and faith as effectively, at least not in a piece of media.
as for my boy Nidhoggr and various serpent kin, i happen to know thing or two. i might be willing to share some, but i'm curious regarding you and your viewerships' opinions on UPG (unverified personal gnosis) and VPG (verified personal gnosis) before i volunteer such info.
as for the vamp query: i'd have to say jein. IN GENERAL, most vamps feed primarily on the essences of the LIVING. however, when you get into entities that qualify as a manner of lich, or were perhaps never alive, being animated from conception by death force (is there a Norse word for the opposite of Ond?) well, things can get complicated. yes, the same dynamic, of an entity vacuuming animating force from another is vampiric, but i would say as Nidhoggr seems to be (and gives me the impression from our interactions) as having been made out of dead things, and hence not truly alive, so unable to fit the definition we have in the occult to describe the kinds of vamps we generally encounter: which are death attuned LIVING things, the issue is i don't think we have specific enough words for creatures like Nidhoggr. not in human words anyway. death sucker? shade breathers? vnder-gaap? i'm just throwing out ideas at this point.
one thing i should reveal for certain, which multiple practitioners have confirmed from my own observation, is that Nidhoggr serves a manner of director of entropy and recycling in the 9 Worlds' universe. corpses and all matter that dies is eaten. this pattern is seen as the entropy which feeds: rot becoming fertility. "blood makes the grass grow green." an old medieval bardic song if i recall. souls pass through Nidhoggr, the most corrupt destroyed, the others being sort of cleaned before being passed to the peaceful sectors of Hel. further deep water is associated with being a gateway to Underworld realms in most mythos world round, as well as serpent guardian.
i can share more of my experiences, but i'm testing the waters with this much info honestly.
The animals living in Yggdrasil are corresponding really well whit the Hindu chakras and so do a lot of there gods and story's whit the Indo-Europeans.
The eagle whit the hawk between his eyes corresponds whit the Ajna chakra 'the third eye of Shiva'.
And its physical counterpart the pineal gland. ;-)
@@joannajett2524 Many chakras have a physical "presence' but there is more to them.
ruclips.net/video/GI_SN7AHFwo/видео.html
My last 2 male Rats were Ratatöskr and Darktan (Maurice and His Educated Rodents)
All those descriptions of ygdrasil and related entities have a striking resemblance to plinius the younger's work about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Great video!
also, i have no idea if youve ever seen adventure time, but princess bubblegum's brother "neddy" is a clear reference to nidhoggr and worth checking out imo!
nidhoggr can be a vampire if he wants!
Norse, Eldritch Horror, Dragon Snake. Total Lovecraft vibes.
What I’ve distinguished between my research and some stories that have been passed down from Germanic family is the world tree is both a cosmic tree and a tree with is us that connects us to the universe. The world tree within us represents what is equivalent to Hindu Chakras. The Eagle that sits up top the tree is our third eye awareness. Nidhogg represents our fear and regret. Ratatiskr is the messenger between them, meaning it’s our inner conflict between what we desire and what we fear or regret in life.
Asgard represents our mind, Midgard our heart, Alfheim is our ancestors hereditary connections, Vanaheim is our Reproduction and Human Nature connection, Muspelheim is our action, determination, chaos. Nifelheim is our absence of feeling, Apathy if you will. Jotunheim is our natural change such as time and aging. Svartalfheim is our cellular construction where we manifest our desire. Helheim is our root to our creation, devourer of existence, our metabolism.
Thanx for the awesome content ocean
I like your head-canon for Ratatoskr. He's the squirrel from Ice Age to be sure.
i came for the title, stayed for the puns
Something that was missed is that Nidhoggr is the representation of chaos, he ate/was trapped in the roots of Yggdrasil to send the universe into chaos, which contradicts that my sources also say that he had a beach where the damned would wash up onto( and he would eat). So it’s a very confusing topic since it does conradict itself
The question at the end:
No? Most vampirism is supposed to be of blood, while the devouring of souls is associated with demons and some ghouls or the like. Nidhoggr could count as a demon god or something of the sort.
The description and imagery of Nidhoggr and Hevrlgelmir remind me of Celtic Mythology a bit like the Irish god Crom Cruach another terrifying serpent death dragon, though might have originally been a sun fertility god. Crom the crooked and bloody one is depicted as a dark god of human sacrifice, death and decay which is common symbolism for serpents in Celtic myth, the creepy crawly slithering things that wriggle and crawl up from the underworld to break down the rotting and decaying things into new and fertile land that life may grow from again. I wonder if there's some overlap, either an ancient root or maybe cultural exchange either from the Viking invasions or brought over from the Christianization of Scandinavia imported by the Irish monks.
I sometimes think that nidhoggr represents all the fears and insecurity’s we have and the negative thoughts that lay in our base consciousness. Basically nidhogger nauwls at our roots but obviously the eagle is out higher self in a way
We have to live with both of these at times one dominates and Ratatosk is the communicator between these aspects of our selfs
Excuse me shit spelling
To answer your final question, yes; but an eastern vampire.
Ratatoskr will inevitability be a Disney cartoon.. it's one of the lesser known signs of ragnorak
I read of this malevolent Serpent that it would outlive Ragnarok to rise one day in the far future to start a new Ragnarok and that it would be him and his serpents mortals and gods would have to confront.
I really wish there was more information to go on in regards to Niđhoggr. Though I wonder if my motivation is purely curiosity, or latent Christianity searching for moral ramifications in religion.
Love your videos ocean, you need to put out more.
Working on it!
Dude Ii LOVE your anti-cosmic-conflict take on the dialog between the Serpent and the Eagle by way of the dubious middle-man!
I don't see evidence of any Battle or Conflict in the Divine and/or Cosmic realms, so I think it follows Wisdom to read into our myths more of the Savage Harmony that seems more prevalent in the Cosmic (thus, Divine) structure, from our vantage on Midgard, Earth.
The Slavic Serpent+Eagle "dialog" across a cosmic tree already showed signs of their dispute becoming more of a discussion a few centuries back! Perun and Veles are, after all, brothers, who share the responsibility of raising the Sun God each year.
They avoid the middle man, Perun sends His messages to Veles in the form of lightning bolts blasting through trees, while Veles seems to stretch snakes out over stones in full view of the sky (snakes sunning themselves) perhaps in some form of script? to send His tidings heavenward.
Some of the magical birds of Slavic folklore may be the messengers of Veles to the Sky God as well, if the ophid-a-bet thing doesn't fit you...
Nidhog being a dragon that is wher all waters come from reminds me of the Indo-European idea of the dragon that hords all waters until a hero re takes it.
I think messenger has bigger role then that. Maybe it is purpose for misinterpreted message because message from dragon can be really dangerous and could break even existence or mind to someone who can actually understand meaning of it. So they need messenger who does not understand true meaning but is able to filter out power of message.
Hello I used to be a Christian, but because of your channel I am not any more(Well I still believe in the Christian God, but I also believe in other deities and will be worshipping them more so) I am drawn to Norse paganism and Germanic paganism as a whole as well as Celtic paganism(though much less, so)
"He figured he'd remember it" yep, sounds about right for a fellow squirrel brain (I have ADHD and I regularly call it squirrel brain energy)
I think Nidhoggr could probably be considered a vampire of sorts, but I suppose it depends on your definition of vampire.
My question is: can the Nidhoggr be considered a god/deity?
Definitely seems to fit the definition of diety in Steve Dillon's The Case for Polytheism, or close enough given the sparce information.
Is Nidhoggr a numinous being? It would appear so. However, I would caution against diving headfirst into giving Nidhoggr any kind of cultus as it's quite possible that he is not the kind of deity that can be approached without proper boundaries established. I'm not saying he is not deserving of respect or worship but I will say that you shouldn't expect an all-consuming death dragon to act like anything other than an all-consuming death dragon. I'd suggest speaking to trusted devotees of the Rokkr to see how they generally go about engaging with Nidhoggr as it is my understanding that they do engage in cultus in honor of him. Now, please understand that when I say there should probably be boundaries I do not mean you should be disrespectful. I mean, in and of itself, that'd probably be a really dumb thing to do. You (a puny human) couldn't intimidate him even if there was a whole army of you. I wouldn't bet on your chances of winning that fight. What I mean is to respectfully make it clear that you can really only give an inch despite the fact that he'd probably prefer the mile. He's going to want the mile. He's an all-consuming primordial dragon of death. It's his purpose in life to take the mile. That's just how it is and there's nothing you can do about that except give him something you are capable of giving in place of the mile. Do you get what I mean?
@@WildMen4444 I do, if watch some more of Ocean's or WindinTheWorldTrees videos, they covers the idea of reciprocity several times, and what is likely to be able to be held to reciprocity.
I do worship Hel, but their is logical praxis for that, I wouldn't consider Niđhoggr to be a diety that you can build reciprocity with, for the reasons you mentioned above.
But I could be wrong too.
@@WildMen4444 sorry that deserved a longer answer, but I'm camping lol
That thumbnails artist just influenced my next dragon. Who is it?
it was me screwin around with midjourney
Niddhoggr vs Godzilla... Who wins ? :P
Nidhogg does not count as a Vampire. He has wings and Bloodsuckers with wings are called Mosquitos.
Just finished God of War Ragnarok and this creature was the hardest fight lol
My main result with the basics of Ygdrasil, and the nine worlds of this mythology is Even the giants don't scare me I've read a few of the well hidden myths of this planet being created and Elves and Giants sharing a few things, But Nidhogg / Nidhoggr? his explanations only give me a vision of a planet dragon relaxing unless in serious trouble. Patiently shown self support and defense being done thoughtfully that's what some of the oldest dragons make me think of instead.
Was informative and no B/S thanks for all your work 🤙🤙👍👍⚔️
I wonder if the hawk between the Eagles eyes represent seeing the truth? A way to interpret the squirrels intensions., which sound like stress! The only prey among predators.
In Christianity the devil is sometimes refranced as a dragon and a serpent so maybe during the Christianization of the mythology they saw a torturous dragon and were like yep that's Satan wink wink hint hint, idk that's just my two sense
I recently read a fiction book about faries, Loki, and some unknown evil trying to destroy all the realms in which Nidhoggr was described as sucking the blood from the dead sent to Hel so they would be weak, pale, and docile until needed for her army at Ragnarok--so, yes, I would say Nidhoggr could be classed as a vampire. It made me wonder did the Norse or Germanic peoples really see Nidhoggr as such, or did the author make it up. But looking at the actual limited info. about Nidhoggr, it does seem the author pilfered that info. from one or two of the better-known sources on Germanic mythology.
interesting👌
The first important question is where the Ask Yggdrasil is standing and where it´s roots are located.
Yggdrasil goes through the 3 realms of Utgard, Asgard and Midgard and as Utgard and Asgard above Midgard, the Earth, some celestial imagery must be included in the mythical understanding.
I have the mythical Utgard to be astronomically connected with Milky Way contour images on the Earth’s two celestial hemispheres, and I have Asgard to describe the mythical motion of Sun, Moon, Planets, Stars and Star Constellations.
The Norse mythical Níðhǫggr Serpent or Dragon resembles the nocturnal Milky Way band observable all around the Earth. The “root” of the Milky Way is it´s center located in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation on the southern hemisphere. When Níðhǫggr ”gnaws at a root of Yggdrasil”, this mean cosmologically that it´s head is located by the Milky Way center and the root of Yggdrasil.
This astronomical and cosmological myth has nothing to do with an evil snake or cosmic catastrophes, or an "apocalyptic death dragon" of but it has been biblically skewed to be a dualistic telling and psychologized beyond recognizable matters for modern humans who have lost much of the natural contact to the scenarios above the Earth, which is embedded in the cultural myths.
Devouring or sucking out life force/soul no more makes Nidhoggr a vampire than it does Ammut, in Kemetic tradition. They both play a necessary role in their respective understandings. The role a god plays (and remember, there's usually a wider range of roles played by a deity figure than a god is given credit for) has nothing to do with the feeding habits of an entirely different category of beings.
With the descriptions, I remember something from the bible's Old Testament like the Jewish hell or gehinnom?? it's like literally a place where the dead is because of the worms but it's kind of same with Nidhogg's abode
I feel like Nidhoggr is time.
To answer your question; that wholly depends on how vampires count, if it's different from how we count.... a vone, two, thrree ah ah ah.... ;)
The question about Niidhog being considered vampiric is directly correlative to which mythological catagorization of Vampire your referencing. Honestly, if I may be so bold, though Niidhog has vampiric characteristics he lacks any of the other earmark identifiers of vampiric beings. In my observation, niidhog basically more akin to a Litch. Question is... if he is a litch, what is the phylactory that contains his soul? Who knows... maybe his phylactory is housed inside Yggdrasil's core, which is why he gnaws on the tree's roots.
Nice Video!!! Question ✋ is Nastrond a valid place description for the LINGWorms,,, vacation home? Burrow or home of why Ingwas is in his name?
Thank you for your time: only a small mishap if you note absence of mind; maybe community communication is okay with safeties in place
(Safety first)
One thing I’ve noticed with dragons/great serpents, was interesting to me. It’s likely christianized tales… The oldest religions are serpent/dragon cults which can be traced back to Africa between 75,000-100,000 years ago.
This could also be why we have tales of dragons on a global level.
Not Norse, but Serbian myth actually portrays them as mostly beneficial to man. The Zmaj protected crops from spirits behind natural forces that would destroy crops, protecting the livelihood of villagers.
Vales, the Slavic horned god occasionally takes a “serpent” form.
One of Vales tasks is to take souls of the fallen for to the underworld guarded by a Zmaj.
Cernunnos bears a “horned serpent”.
In some myths, dragons guard the Celtic otherworld.
Now let’s stop and think because while there are variations in tales of Indo-European traditions, all of them are still fairly similar.
So studying tales of various European cultures is often a good way to reconstruct what may have actually been thought because “serpent worship” actually originated in Africa then migrated globally over quite a massive frame in time. When you compare the other two thoughts behind the Slavic horned god and Celtic horned god, you can get a different notion of serpents and dragons guarding afterlife worlds, and where not apart of “punishing humans” but protecting the realms their souls resides in. So it is entirely possible Nidhogg has been villanized when if fact he may have played a very different role.
Hæl Ocean!!! Gode wyrd sie þe!!!
My Ratatoskr head canon is that he is just a messy little guy who just keeps stirring the pot for their own amusement. I do it at the strip club where I work... Like, "Yes girl, you know that wrench said her 73 year old granny dance better than you do."
God of the dad jokes over here
personaly i beleave in a verry mater of fact way, so i interparate the storys of religion a bit more literal. In this example i beleave that Nidhoggr is a way to explain the grusome decomposing of the body, the time when our bodys if not preserved would naturly be eaten by worms and other yukky insects and bacteries. SO i think nidhoggr is just a way of saying many worms decomposing/eating your body after death.
It's kinda odd, but the idea Arith Harger put forward that the serpent Jormungandr was actually an earth spirit of some kind, or the fylgja of the earth, something like that; it makes me wonder if the idea he also had that Thor never would have hurt Jormungandr is false but the idea that Jormungadr themselves was a earth spirit *was* correct. It's just that they mixed up the serpents that Thor fights at Ragnarok. That's one idea I had while watching the video, but I could be completely wrong obviously. Though it would make sense for the fishing story as well, where Thor instead of fishing in midgard's oceans, was instead maybe trying to free the spring waters at the base of yggdrasil from Nidhoggr? It matches with the historical "indo-european" myth structure of thundergods fighting snakey dragons. Though, again, could be SO wrong haha
The name of the eagle is Hræsvelgr.
Your UPG or Ratatoskr reminds me of the Key and Peele Texting meme 😆
Still, I can’t help but wonder if the conflict between Audhumbla and Ymir carries on through Eagle and Dragon.
I will clarify real quick that what i said isn't upg, it's just a fun interpretation.
@@OceanKeltoi personal Gnosis though?
@@deismaccountant No, that wouldn't be personal gnosis. It's just interpretation.
@@OceanKeltoi if you say so. Still unclear how Utgard Loki wound up in Nastrond though.
@@deismaccountant It's a strange event, isn't it? I was recently reading an interpretation of this where the idea is simply an imported concept from the Christianized 'fettered devil' trope that got overmapped onto Loki / Utgard Loki, but I'm still looking into it myself. There's a wealth of scholastic discussion on Loki when it comes to what beliefs about him may have existed in the past.
Thanks for the late night/early morning thoughts ocean. No nidhogg is not a vampire vampires while also sucking life force it’s biological, while nidhogg is “spiritual.” In a way, he’d be more akin to soul eater or ap*p can’t say it to respect all the kemetics who may be checking out your content
It seems to me that Nidhggr, according to scholar Rudolph's translation, as " the one striking full of hatred and every passage of him invokes a sense of cosmic horror", that part " striking horror" sounds kinda Lovecraftian in essence. I wouldn't say Anti-Cosmic but sounds more Lovecraftian. And I can't help noticing how much dualism (as opposing forces at war against each other) between Nidhoggr and The Eagle reflected in there, or is it really that Ratatoskr is the one to blame. If the latter would be the case then the concept of duality is null, therefore the two sides would be (or are) two complementary forces working with each other instead of going at it against each other. And if that's the case then truly the concept of dualism applied in Norse Myths came from christians, or, from scholars who were somehow influenced by Christianity, since they were the ones who reinterpreted the sagas; starting with Snorri Sturlusson. Am I right? My question is: how can one separate the christian influence from the heathen ones to grasp the heathen essential knowledge from these sagas?
Now putting this side....."Dragging it out". Come on man 😂😂😂. This made my day. 😂😂. Don't stop bringing humor to your videos; makes them more enjoyable so I thank you for this👍👍👍.
Hi Ocean I have a question because of the Christian influence of the text sometime it’s hard to tell what’s true or false about Norse legends how do you guys deal with balder because I saw a video awhile back from another your that talks about mythology a lot and he said there are two versions of balder one is the Jesus like figure another is a warrior and kinda violent
The other myth of Baldur is from Saxo, and he’s very much a human in the story. You can find it in Saxo’s text. Info on that text is in the vid description actually.
Feeding on souls, maybe a type of energy vampire?
The Nidhoggr as Colin from What We Do in the Shadows
@@OceanKeltoi exactly who I had thought of 😆
Ratataskr the squirrel god of ADHD
The name of the eagle is Hräsvelg...
That first image where did you find it? I’d like to see it larger please
I would count nidhoggr as a soul wrath, that feed on the souls of the damned. I might know some who would count and breeder if such beast? but he doesn’t know it yet?! Like might pythons with venom. A wyrm like nidhoggr chewing at the fabric of reality might have the Norns miffed? Have them say “there worse than the moths”? “That the ……… hole this week”!? Such dark matter? Such quantum physics? A beast that dines of the subatomic structures that hold the world together. I wonder what the wyrm party going to look like? A great hall that’s pulsating with the bodies of snakes? Daring the foolish to enter?
i have a suggestion: but its okay if you dont want to do it if you havent already can you make a video on thor and hymir or maype just a video on tyr in general
Any idea where I can get a hammer similar to yours? I have one but it is small. I want a bigger one.
😢