Nidhogg

Beneath the final route sits Hevergelmir, the spring from which the primordial rivers originate.

This route is constantly gnawed upon by the dragon Nidhogg.

High in Yggdrasil sits a giant eagle who creates the winds when he takes flight.

A squirrel named Ratatosk runs up and down the tree, delivering insults between the eagle and Nidhogg, provoking

That one I liked, right? So, like, all this is going on, and then there's just a squirrel who, like, does mama cutdowns.

Like, all this elaborate mythology, it'll, like, get really elaborate and out there, and then it'll be like, by the way, there's a squirrel that's a stand-up.

...accompanied by Loki and the forces of hell to fight the gods.

Amid the chaos, the sky is split apart by the soldiers of Muspelheim, led by their magnificent sir, who will trample upon Bifrost, destroying it.

Yggdrasil has three mighty taproots, each extending into the manifestation of the sacred well.

One terminates the Nephilim in the well of Vergilmir, one in Jotunheim in Mimirsbrunner, the well of Jotunmir, and the final one in Oro... oro bruner the well of fate an ancient dragon need hog gnaws at the root beneath uh virgo mirror if the tree topples so will the fabric of the multiverse nor near or the nor near prevent this however by daily pouring healing waters from udra's well over the body of the tree this water containing the resolution of all things past and the impetus for all things to come restores the tree healing its wounds Oh, it's like a cosmic ecosystem, seems like.

The Nornir, the three mighty women who sit at the foot of Yggdrasil, are, like the tree itself, beings outside of time and space.

Even the gods themselves must bow to the fate of Nornir's decree.

Much whoredom, though.

Interesting.

Yggdrasil finally falls prey to the gnawing of the dragon Nidhogg.

Jotnar converge on Asgard, attacking the world of the gods, and Loki is said to lead the forces from Jotunheim against the gods.

and between the eagle's eyes sits a hawk called Vethophonir, the storm-pale, or the weather-bleached.

The eagle and Nidhoggr are enemies, and running up and down the trunk between them is a squirrel named Ratatoska.

His work, Snorri says, is to carry the words of hatred between the eagle at the top of the tree and Nidhoggr at its roots.

Snorri does not say that the squirrel embroiders the insults, but it is hard not to feel, from the way the story is told, that the busy little creature takes a certain pleasure in his work, and that the enmity between the eagle and the dragon is kept warm through all the ages by his endless running up and down.

Four stags move among the branches of the tree, browsing on its foliage.

Some readers have thought that it shows that evil still exists, even in the new world, as a dark shadow passing over it.

Others have thought that the dragon is flying away, leaving the new world forever.

Others again think that the seeress is returning to her present, the time before the end, when Nidhoggr still gnaws at the roots of the tree, and her vision fades.

Mithhoge, whose name is sometimes translated as the one who strikes with malice, or the corpse Nora, dwells not in the ocean, but at the root of Yggdrasil, the great ash tree that holds the nine worlds in its branches and its roots.

Where German Gander encircles the outer boundary of the world, Nidhogg works from within, gnawing at the deepest root of the tree with a patience that the poets describe as relentless and ancient, as though it had been at this task since before anyone thought to ask when it began.

They are two serpents performing two different kinds of pressure on the structure of existence, one pressing inward from the outside, one working outward from the inside, and together they suggest something about how the Norse imagination understood the world's fragility.

That was not as a thing that might be broken by a single blow, but as a thing that was always, slowly, being worn away from multiple directions at once, held in shape only by the fact that nothing had yet given way completely.

Nidhoggr survives Ragnarok in some accounts, rising up with corpses on its wings in the vision of the Veluspar.

That suggests that the gnawing does not stop even when everything else ends, that this quality of slow unmaking is somehow more persistent than the gods themselves.

Germangander, by contrast, is destroyed at Ragnarok.

No, it was basically like the deepest pit of all time.

And who knew, who knows what is like, that's where Morgoth bred the dragons.

And that's where he did probably started twisting, um, Twisting the werewolves And doing all that stuff Who knows what else And that's probably where trolls came from His experiments I think That is the idea That trolls are meant to be Like an anti-ent.

Like they're meant to be the mockery of...

Which I find like...

So they're like...

They're almost pseudo-dragons.

which I like as a, as a reflection of the Eagles much more instead of just being a straight corruption of them.

And then, yeah, we actually kind of got in like a little bit of a talk before regarding like the Davy clan, and maybe the Davy clan might have been giants as well.

The former Nidhogg user as well might have been on Joyboy's crew.

You want to kind of go into that a little, Adam?

Yeah, I just thought it was really interesting because Joyboy's a giant, right? He has some kind of affiliate.

giant.

Or affiliated with Elbeth in some way.

We also know that There was a user of the Nidhogg fruit at one point in time.

He had to have been king of Elbaf at some point.

One is among the Aesir, another among the Rime Giants, in that place where aforetime was the yawning void.

The third stands over Niflheim, and under that root is Fergalmir, and Nidhogger gnaws the root from below.

But under that root which turns toward the Rime Giants is Mimir's well, wherein wisdom and understanding are stored.

And he is called Mimir who keeps the well.

Alphinaud talks about how the island reminds him of the Bismarck battle.

Astinian even does an attack that directly invokes Nidhogg by name.

Maybe it's just because of the connection aesthetically to ice and snow, but it so much feels like it has to be more.

What do you think? This is going to be a long four to five months, depending on when it releases in January, to find out.

yeah and there's maybe you sail and

if we're really trying to please people harsh

but also i mean we are miss i mean Nidhogg is a Norse name.

Yeah.

One is among the Aesir, another among the Rime Giants, in that place where aforetime was the yawning void.

The third stands over Niflheim, and under that root is Fergelmir, and Nidhogger gnaws the root from below.

But under that root which turns toward the Rime Giants is Mimir's Well, wherein wisdom and understanding are stored.

And he is called Mimir who keeps the well.