Niðing Pole
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For the Evil Germanic mythological creature, see Níð.
A Niding pole (Nithstang, Nidstang) [or where the Th is replaced by a ð] or Runic cursing pole, is a pole used for cursing an enemy in the Germanic tradition.
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[edit] History
A Niding pole is the most ancient way in Germanic mythology for cursing an enemy or other person that has done you wrong.
Niding poles are tree trunks carved with runes for cursing. At the head of the pole is a horses head and over the trunk is the horses skin.
[edit] Popular culture
- In the 2005 movie Beowulf and Grendel Niding poles were used to curse Grendel for his murder spree.
- Some modern neopagans in the Norse tradition have referred to their online curses as "Niding poles" [1]
- "And when all was ready for sailing, Egil went up into the island. He took in his hand a hazel-pole, and went to a rocky eminence that looked inward to the mainland. Then he took a horse's head and fixed it on the pole. After that, in solemn form of curse, he thus spake: 'Here set I up a curse-pole, and this curse I turn on king Eric and queen Gunnhilda. (Here he turned the horse's head landwards.) This curse I turn also on the guardian-spirits who dwell in this land, that they may all wander astray, nor reach or find their home till they have driven out of the land king Eric and Gunnhilda.' This spoken, he planted the pole down in a rift of the rock, and let it stand there. The horse's head he turned inwards to the mainland; but on the pole he cut runes, expressing the whole form of curse." - Egils Saga, Chapter LXXV (75)
[edit] Further reading
- Rune Magic by Nigel Pennick
- Secrets of the Runes by Nigel Pennick
- Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition by Nigel Pennick
- Natural Magic by Nigel Pennick
