Fantasy, mystery, thrillers, horror, historical. . .I write it all, and review it too!

Oct 9, 2013

Norse Gods Blogfest: Naglfar, the Ship made from Dead Men's Nails

Today I'm participating in the Norse Gods blogfest. Wanting to be a bit different, I'm not going to talk about a deity per se, but a magical ship called Naglfar ("Nail Ship").

The Norse envisioned the end of the world as a titanic battle between Gods and the forces of Surtr, which included giants, rival gods, and various other fell beings such as the giant wolf Fenrir.

Sailing against the gods is the ship Naglfar, captained by the trickster god Loki and made entirely from the fingernails and toenails of dead men. It's a vast ship carrying hordes of warriors. In this apocalyptic battle many of the gods are killed, the world is consumed by fire and then flooded, and then rises from the waves fresh and new. Some gods remain to rule over this new land.

Only two humans are going to survive that particular era in human history, a sort of Norse Adam and Eve who will repopulate the land. The Prose Edda warns us to make sure to trim the nails of the dead to keep the enemies of the gods from completing Naglfar, but since it's all fated to happen anyway, I don't see how we can stop it!

Below is a shot of the Tullstorp Runestone from Sweden, showing the wolf Fenrir and the ship Naglfar.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

17 comments:

  1. What an interessting post, and I learned something new! In my book I make referance to Skildbadnir. I love ships and the cover of your new book is fantastic! Thanks for participating in this blogfest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Made up from human nails - that is just creepy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, A.J.

    Visiting from the blogfest.. Nice to meet you. What a cool history lesson. Thanks for bringing an interesting twist to this fest!

    ReplyDelete
  4. *shivers* A ship out of fingernails of the dead!? ACK! So creepy (yet strangely fascinating). And I'd forgotten where the name Fenrir came from--nod to JK Rowling for making use of that!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's a whole lot of toenail clippings. - Maurice Mitchell
    The Geek Twins

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is seriously disturbing. And awesome. Happy Norse Gods Blogfest!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love it! Spooky... now how can I worm this into my next story? :) X

    http://shahwharton.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, liked that story and the Runestone. Good entry. Best of luck to Siv! (couldn't they think of something other than toenails and fingernails - yuk)

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Nail Ship. What an interesting choice. This is a great bloghop. I feel I've learned so much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Okay, for real I love this myth. I think it's fascinating because it's a justification for good hygiene as well as an end of the world thing. Kind of like the equivalent of "Never leave the house with streaks on your underwear because you never know when you might end up in the hospital!"

    Awesome choice!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Loki happens to be my favorite Norse God. And I'm sure his part in the murder of his brother Baldr was predestined to start the war of the gods.

    .......dhole

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for the story. Sorry I'm late making rounds on the hop.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thông tin rất bổ ích, tôi có một số thông tin liên quan hữu ích cho bạn dưới đây về thiết bị loa âm thanh. Với các mẫu âm loa kiểu dáng đa dạng, tính thẩm mỹ cao cùng tính năng vượt trội, giá thành phải chăng chắc chắn sẽ đem đến cho bạn sản phẩm có giá trị:
    âm thanh đỉnh cao
    âm thanh hội trường
    âm thanh karaoke
    Âm thanh nhà xưởng

    ReplyDelete
  14. Bạn có thể tham khảo những thông tin liên qua mới nhất dưới đây:
    mua võng xếp duy phương thegioivong.vn
    đệm bông ép sông hồng giá thegioidembongep.com
    giá đệm bông ép everon 9cm thegioidembongep.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. I will be very happy if you keep writing this kind of post because this post is very good and I am very happy that I saw this post and today I am very happy to see this post, I have also written a lot of websites and blogs. I am giving you in the link, you can see if you want.
    Sushant Lok Escorts Girls
    Phase 3 Escorts Servcie

    ================================================================

    Escorts Service Sector 31
    call girls in noida
    Female Escorts in Gurugram

    ReplyDelete
  16. My heartfelt greetings to all those people and you who are always writing good posts, seeing and reading your posts inspired me so much that I can try to make my upcoming posts more beautiful.
    call girl gurugram
    Gurugram Escorts
    escort service gurugram

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    call girls Sector 36
    Gurugram Sector 39 Escorts
    cheap escorts services in Gurugram
    call girl sector 24
    Sushant lok Escorts

    ReplyDelete