Yggdrasil, the great World Tree, has its roots in the lowest worlds - Niflheim and Helheim. Its most obvious third protruding root is found, huge and dark, at the great well Hvergelmir in Niflheim. Hvergelmir means “Boiling Cauldron”, and all the rivers of the Nine Worlds flow from its churning depths. Next to it lies the third root of the Tree, drawing nourishment form the Well, so huge that it runs off the boundary of Niflheim and into Helheim; the Wall of Helheim incorporates it like it would a small mountain. The dragon Nidhogg, a thirty-foot multicolored wingless earth-dragon, crawls back and forth over that wall to gnaw at the great root on both sides of the border.
When not coiled around the lowest root of the World Tree, Nidhogg crosses the wall into Helheim and visits Dead Man’s Shore. This is a place where the sun never shines, and the dark waters of Helheim’s ocean stretch out between the worlds. Corpses and the shed skins of serpents litter the shore. Nidhogg comes down periodically in her task as carrion-remover and eats the corpses. Many fear her because of her job, but she is an important part of the cycle. Like Hela who is intimately connected with the life-phase of rotting, Nidhogg represents the next part of the cycle, when the rot feeds life. Whether it is carrion-eaters or the earth itself, nothing grows unless something dies and rots to feed it.
Nidhogg cleans up rot. As such, she is there to devour nasty things in one’s self, both physical (like necrosis and certain types of cancer) and emotional (like long-buried festering resentments) and situational (like nasty mold or rotting foundations in a house). Like all the rot-Gods, she is there to take away your garbage, but you have to be willing to give it to her.
She is also a patron of anyone whose job is to clean up the environment, because she represents Nature’s ability to clean up our pollution, which is considerable (although not infinite). Calling Nidhogg into an environmental issue can help clean it up faster … if you pay for it with more cleaning, elsewhere. To propitiate Nidhogg, spend a day without throwing anything away. That includes your bodily wastes - give them all back to the Earth. Burn or reuse any wrappers, or just don’t use them. This is her price - for one day, act like you understand that there is no such place as away.
Nidhogg is also an ordeal-giver, and is one of the great powers of Cold, and can be invoked to survive hypothermic conditions.
