Níðhöggr
There comes the shadowy
dragon flying,
glittering serpent, up
from Dark of the Moon Hills.
He carries in his pinions
—he flies over the field—
Malice Striker, corpses.
Now will she sink.
Nidhoggr was a monstrous dragon, his bony and gaunt hide tinged with a sinister purplish hue. He dwelled in the frozen realm of Niflheim, cursed to feast on three things until Ragnarok: the roots of Yggdrasill, and the corpses and souls of murderers, adulterers, and oath-breakers. His name, "villain killer" or "malice striker," struck fear into the hearts of many. When the giants and trolls charged across the Bifrost, Nidhoggr would herald their arrival and the onset of Ragnarok, flying over the lands with a terrifying presence, ready to clear the fields for the dead. Yet it was said that the corpses and souls this dreadful dragon consumed were eventually cleansed and reborn, pure like some macabre counter to the phoenix myth.
History
The exact moment when Nidhoggr was cursed to dwell in Nastrond of Niflheim, or when he was born and who his parents were, remained unknown. For as long as any living Asgardian could recall, Nidhoggr had been trapped among the roots of Yggdrasill, gnawing at its roots and feasting on the corpses of murderers and the most despicable oathbreakers that amassed in his realm. These corpses and roots never satisfied him; he always hungered for fresher prey, particularly Asgardians, as though he had tasted them before. Yet, no records existed of any Asgardians falling victim to Nidhoggr before.
Antiquity
Baldur Odinson, Thor's elder brother, ventured into Niflheim to witness for himself what became of Asgard's enemies in death. He traversed the icy wastelands of the Asgardian hell until he reached Nastrond, the realm amidst Yggdrasill's roots, and came face-to-face with Nidhoggr. The Asgardian watched the corpse-like dragon devoure their enemies between futile attempts to free himself from his prison and it horrified the noble and compassionate Baldur. This harrowing experience compelled Baldur to persuade his father to cease the conquests of the nine realms, granting men the chance to atone for their sins before facing Nidhoggr’s insatiable maw.
Industrial Revolution
When the Red Skull tracked the Tesseract, Odin's cosmic cube, to a church in Tonsberg, the caretaker initially denied its presence, offering a box containing a blue quartz imitation. The Skull’s knowledge of Norse mythology saw through the ruse, and he shattered the fake Tesseract. Tracing the carving of Yggdrasill to its roots, he discovered the image of Nidhoggr. Pressing the dragon’s eye opened a hidden compartment, revealing the true Tesseract. The Skull then executed the caretaker and the entire village populace.
World War II
Nidhoggr received an influx of new corpses and souls during the war as the Germans once again venerated the ancient Germanic gods. Growing stronger, he thrashed and tore at his prison to free himself when a root unexpectedly broke, creating a wormhole that pulled Nidhoggr to the remote island of Skrekklandet in Norway, where a Nazi Wunderwaffe team had unwittingly opened the wormhole on their end. Nidhoggr went berserk until Thor arrived, and the two engaged in a ferocious battle that culminated in a massive lightning strike. The resulting inferno from Nidhoggr's incinerated remains was visible to Captain America, who was on his way to destroy the Nazi base.
Superhuman Registration Era
Nidhoggr had returned to imprisonment under the world tree once more after Thor struck him down. More than 60 years later, Lady Sif ventured into Niflheim and descended into Nastrond. She was startled to find the malice striker alive, nestled under the tree, as she had believed him slain on Midgard. Nidhoggr refused to answer her questions about his return and only demanded food. Sif used the food as a ploy to extract the truth about the Berserker but was met with resistance, as the dragon cared only for nourishment beyond roots and unclean corpses. It wasn't until the Asgardian threatened to gouge out his eye that he begrudgingly directed her to follow the Fimbulthul, past Hvergelmir, where she would find the teacher Aerndis. Nidhoggr warned that Aerndis would likely kill her before teaching her and quipped that when she was dead, he would lick her skull clean.
Another decade passed, during which Nazi scientists discovered Nidhoggr's remains on Midgard and reanimated them to clone more malice strikers. The Avengers traced the source of these dragons back to Skrekklandet, where they battled numerous cloned offspring of Nidhoggr but struggled to make headway. The facility continually spawned more dragons, and the only way to halt this was to destroy the machine controlling the source sample and kill Nidhoggr once again. Hulk fought his way to the machine and found Nidhoggr alive and conscious. He was astonished, and the sight gave the green monster pause. Hulk, understanding the agony of being experimented on, hesitated to kill the dragon. But Nidhoggr, weary of captivity and being used as a weapon, requested to be returned to Nastrond. Hulk, showing mercy, destroyed the machine and granted the dragon his wish. The cloned offspring of the malice striker were then decisively defeated.
Aliases:
- Eater of the Dead
- Evil Blow
- Malice Striker
- Master of Nastrond
- Nidhogg
- The Mightest Dragon in Hel
- Tearer of Corpses
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