Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

The demon Nidhogg, which Gylfaginning throws into Hvergelmir, is, according
to the ancient records, a winged dragon flying about, one of several similar monsters
which have their abode in Niflhel and those lower regions, and which seek to injure that
root of the world-tree which is nearest to them, that is the northern one, which stands over
Niflhel and stretches its rootlets southward over Mount Hvergelmir and down into its
great water-reservoir (Grímnismál 34, 35). Like all the Indo-European mythologies, the
Germanic also knew this sort of monster, and did so long before the word "dragon"
(drake) was borrowed from southern kinsmen as a name for them. Nidhogg abides now
on Nastrond, where, by the side of a wolf-demon, it tortures náir (corpses), now on the
Nida Mountains, where the vala in Völuspá sees him flying away with náir under his
wings. Nowhere (except in Gylfaginning) is it said that he lives in the fountain
Hvergelmir, though it is possible that he, in spite of his wings, was conceived as an
amphibious being which also could subsist in the water. Tradition tells of dragons who
dwell in marshes and swamps.
The other two subterranean fountains, Urd's and Mimir's, and the roots of
Yggdrasil standing over them, are well protected against the influence of the foes of
creation, and have their separate guardians. Mimir, with his sons and the beings subject to
him, protects and guards his root of the tree, Urd and her sisters hers, and to the latter all
the victorious gods of Asgard come every day to hold counsel. Was the northern root of
Yggdrasil, which spreads over the realms of the frost-giants, of the demons, and of the
damned, and was Hvergelmir, which waters this root and received so important a position
in the economy of the world-tree, left in the mythology without protection and without a
guardian? Hvergelmir we know is situated on the watershed, where we have the deathborder
between Hel and Niflhel fortified with abysses and gates, and is consequently
situated in the immediate vicinity of beings hostile to gods and men. Here, if anywhere,
there was need of valiant and vigilant watchers. Yggdrasil needs its northern root as well
as the others, and if Hvergelmir was not allowed undisturbed to conduct the circuitous
flow of all waters, the world would be either dried up or drowned.
Already, long before the creation of the world, there flowed from Hvergelmir that
broad river called Elivágar, which in its extreme north froze into that ice, which, when it
melted, formed out of its dropping venom the primeval giant Ymir (Vafþrúðnismál 31;
Gylfaginning 5). After creation this river, like Hvergelmir, from which it rises, and
Niflhel, into which it empties, become integral parts of the northern regions of the lower
world. Elivágar, also called Hraunn, Hrönn, sends in its upper course, where it runs near
the crust of the earth, a portion of its waters up to it, and forms between Midgard and the
upper Jotunheim proper, the river Vimur, which is also called Elivágar and Hrönn, like
the parent stream (cp. Hymiskviða 5, 38; Grímnismál 28; Skáldskaparmál, ch. 3, 11, 25,
26; and Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 25). Elivágar separates the realm of the giants and
frost-giants from the other "worlds."
South of Elivágar the gods have an "outgard," a "setur" which is inhabited by
valiant watchers - snotrir víkingar they are called in Þórsdrápa 8 5 - who are bound by
5 Because of the labyrinth nature of its dróttkvætt meter, notorious for its convoluted word order and
fragmented sentences, and because the complex system of kennings found in Thorsdrapa (Þórsdrápa) had
not been fully studied or understood in Rydberg's era, he terribly misunderstands this poem (see No. 114).
Here, the text indeed speaks of "Fríðir eiðsvara víkingar Gauta setrs, snotrir runnar gunnar," glorious,
battle-wise warriors, oath-sworn vikings of Gauti's (Odin's) dwelling, but likely only refers to Thor and