The most prevalent opinion is that the arrival of NГГ°hЗ«ggr heralds RagnarГ¶k and thus that the poem ends on a tone of ominous warning. The context and meaning of this stanza are disputed. NГГ°hГ¶ggr/NГГ°hЗ«ggr is also mentioned at the end of VГ¶luspГЎ, where he is identified as a dragon and a serpent. The first instance is in its description of NГЎstrГ¶nd. The poem VГ¶luspГЎ mentions NГГ°hГ¶ggr/NГГ°hЗ«ggr twice. Snorri Sturluson often quotes GrГmnismГЎl and clearly used it as his source for this information. The poem identifies NГГ°hЗ«ggr as tearing at the tree from beneath and also mentions Ratatoskr as carrying messages between NГГ°hЗ«ggr and the eagle who lives at the top of the tree. The tree suffers great hardship from all the creatures which live on it. The poem GrГmnismГЎl identifies a number of beings which live in Yggdrasill. Later in SkГЎldskaparmГЎl, Snorri includes NГГ°hЗ«ggr in a list of various terms and names for swords.

Snorri's knowledge of NГГ°hЗ«ggr seems to come from two of the Eddic poems: GrГmnismГЎl and VГ¶luspГЎ. These are names for serpents: dragon, Fafnir, Jormungand, adder, Nidhogg, snake, viper, Goin, Moin, Grafvitnir, Grabak, Ofnir, Svafnir, masked one. In the SkГЎldskaparmГЎl section of the Prose Edda Snorri specifies NГГ°hЗ«ggr as a serpent in a list of names of such creatures: The same source also says that 'he squirrel called Ratatoskr runs up and down the length of the Ash, bearing envious words between the eagle and NГdhЗ«ggr.

This root is placed over Niflheimr and NГГ°hЗ«ggr gnaws it from beneath. It is sometimes believed that the roots are trapping the beast from the world.

Prose EddaДЄccording to the Gylfaginning part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, NГГ°hЗ«ggr is a being which gnaws one of the three roots of Yggdrasill. The Danish forms Nidhug and NidhГёg can also be encountered or Norwegian Nidhogg and Swedish NidhГ¶gg. The Modern Icelandic form NГГ°hГ¶ggur is also sometimes seen, with special characters or similarly anglicized. The name can be represented in English texts with i for Г th, d or (rarely) dh for Г° o for З« and optionally without r as in Modern Scandinavian reflexes. In the standardized Old Norse orthography, the name is spelled NГГ°hЗ«ggr, but the letter З« is frequently replaced with the Modern Icelandic Г¶ for reasons of familiarity or technical expediency.

Thus, its name might refer to its role as a horrific monster in its action of chewing the corpses of the inhabitants of NГЎstrГ¶nd: those guilty of murder, rape, and oath-breaking, which Norse society considered among the worst possible. In historical Viking society, nГГ° was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain. In Norse mythology, NГГ°hГ¶ggr ( Malice Striker, in Old Norse traditionally also spelled NГГ°hЗ«ggr, often anglicized Nidhogg ) is a dragon/ serpent who gnaws at a root of the world tree, Yggdrasil. NГГ°hЗ«ggr gnaws the roots of Yggdrasill in this illustration from a 17th-century Icelandic manuscript.

Norse mythology nidhogg