Nidstang/Nidhing Pole
Nidstang, Nidhing pole
“Nithing“
A giant insult in Anglo-Saxon England would have been to call someone a "nithing". This word essentially means "vile coward" "villain" or "waste of space". It was often a title given to criminals, murdering scum, oath-breakers, those without honor and other lows of society. In ancient Germanic mythology, a nithing was a mythological creature. This creature was supposedly a fiend that caused harm and undoing to other people, often through magick. One solution to this problem was to scold the nithing. Which literally meant screaming at them (which I advocate in ANY situation) until either the spell broke/ or the person revealed their true nature. (Of course there was retribution if someone was accused of being a nithing, was screamed at, and later found to be innocent). There are historically some rune-stones that while dedicated to describing honorable feats of men/women, do save some space to condemn certain nithings.
Nidstang”
So what is a nidstang you ask? Well let me have the pleasure of telling you. :) Nidstang means "cursing pole", quite literally. Sometimes it is just called "Nithing" which is why I gave you the back-story to the word. The purpose of a Nidstang is to formally curse or hex someone whom you think really deserves it. The pole can also be used as a sort of protection. You make the pole, leaving the name blank, and place it in front of your home facing the road or something similar. This sort of "curses" unwelcomed or unwanted guests and visitors.
The pole is made like this: A large pole is made out of some form of wood. The wood is not important, unless you are specifically looking for something that has meaning to you or the person you are cursing in particular. You sharpen the ends of this pole until they are nice and pointy. Then, you inscribe certain things into the wood: the name of the person you dedicate this pole to, the actions they have done against you, what you wish to happen to them. You would add binding or cursing runes, runes you found suitable, etc. You may write the person's name repeatedly. You then speak the things you have written. This is called "nid", or the verbal cursing. You may choose to use specific deities in this: a common one is Hel, Goddess of Death. But any and all can be called for this purpose.
Here's an example from the Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson:
"Here I place this "nidstang" ("curse-pole"), and turneth it against King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild - turneth I this against all the gnomes and little people of the land, that they may all be lost, not finding their homes, until they drive King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild out of the country."
After the Nid is done, a horse's head is cut off and place on top of the pole (though sometimes they would use the entire carcass or skin, or if they weren't as serious about the curse or just didn't want the mess of a horse head, they would carve one out of wood as well or use a skull) and the pole is then turned in the direction that the user wishes to send the curse. Ideally, this would be in the direction of the individual's home you wish to curse, the country you wish to curse, the people you wish to curse, etc.
Modern:
More common today is a "virtual nid": usually someone will type up a nid and send it attached with a picture of a horse's head. I do not think these are effective at all. Perhaps the Nid would be, in calling the Gods or wights or whatnot to take retribution on someone for you. But without the physical presence of the pole- I cannot say.
The size of the pole depends upon the person, really, and the purpose for the pole. You can make a giant one, if you feel you are cursing many people or you want it to be extremely powerful. However, for individuals you can make some as small as wands, etc. I've heard it suggested that if you carve the horse head instead of using a real one, it is best to smear your own blood upon it to "wake" it. Some smear the blood on the teeth of the horse.
You do also have to be very careful and specific with this. It is possible that you curse more than you intended. It can curse the land around the individual you meant to curse as well, and this would technically be driving away the land wights. This is because the idea of the pole is to anger the spirits near the person and cause them to take their anger out upon the intended victim. Sometimes the intended purpose IS to drive out the wights, and this is called "alfreka" or "driving away the elves": this is to make a land spiritually dead through your cursing. This is not something to be taken lightly or done in jest! You need to be knowledgeable in what you are doing, or it could go badly for you.
From my own personal uses and experience with this, I have used a variety of different things to substitute for the horses head when I could not get one. I've used goats head, deer head, dog head, etc. I do not use them UNLESS I am VERY serious about what I intend and have thought it through. Yes, they can backfire on the person using them. Yes, I take the mentioning of it very seriously. No, it is not to be used for petty offenses or grudges. In my entire life and years of practice, I have raised 5 nidstangs and 2 of them were for the same person.
Hey! And just for some more interesting reading.. here's some more creative Nid!
"Hear Busla's pleading, soon it will be sung, all shall hear it, evil to all who listen: worst for HIM to whom it is addressed! AWAY you wights. Exceptional events shall happen, rocks shall shudder shake, worlds shall tremble, weather shall rage, and mighty things shall come!
Evil, I wish into your breast that poisonous vipers gnaw your heart. That your ears grow deaf forever and thy eyes shall burst out of your head! Sailing, your rigging shall burst and the oars pivots shall break, be torn to shreds the sails- sending it flying. The braces shall break all!
When you are riding, the bridle shall break, your horse shall go lame! All your paths shall be in the troll's hands. Your bed will be like burning straw, on the raised hide it shall be like the high sea.. but MUCH WORSE will happen to you then!
When you want a girl to enjoy your virility with, you shall never reach final satisfaction. HA HA!
Shall I tell you more?
Dwarfes, Thurses and witches... Mountain trolls, elves and red norns shall set your halls aflame. Giants shall hate you, stallions shall kick you, straw shall stab you, storm shall numb you, and pain shall be yours! Unless you obey my will!
Six shall come, guess their names. They are unbound and I will reveal them: unless you guess them right, dogs shall devour your corpse but your soul will go to Hel!" (This is the Pleading of Busla)
If you want to see an example of Nid, this one in particular is cursing those who defile our culture. So here you go:
"I curse!
I curse all of them who soils our glorious land with unworthy actions
I curse all of them who borrow sacred symbols: Gungnir, Mjolnir and Sacred Staffs -Odins spear, Thors hammer and runes, given by Odins hand and soil them with unholy deeds.
I curse all of them who in ugly costumes and shaven heads as well as suits and ties abuse the wisdom of our ancestors our ancient ways and our present faith. I curse all of them who wants to silent the mouths of others for themselves to be heard with their stupid bellowing. I curse all of them who puts themselves above others because of their paleness who tramples on others because of the color of their skin foreign language or a different faith.
Upon the heads of these miscreants I call all powers!
I call upon the gnomes, and the little people to scratch their bodies and disturb their sleep.I call upon the elf-smiths to lay an iron ring around their chests giving little room for their spirit little room for breath to speak of evil .I call upon the "rimthurses" (frostgiants) from the depth of Nifelhel-That they may freeze to their death before they get a chance to freeze others out. I call Surt and his "fire-thurses" that they may burn to their death before others may burn by their hands!
I call upon Loki that he may twist their vision so that they strike each other down before they strike anyone else down. I call upon Freya so that these young men never may share a woman's bed and never have sons or daughters of their own as long as they want to hinder others to do just that
And I call upon Frey that these young men have their manhood gelded, never being able to create anything good for themselves never getting peace or harvest as long as they want to hinder others to do just that
I call upon Thor that he may protect us from demonic evil and I call upon his wrath against the miscreants who wants to cause pain to others. I call upon Odin,All-father,He who gave spirit to man and woman, He who together with his brothers: Honer and Lodur, Gave life to man, Body and Soul:Ask and Embla- Man and Woman! I call upon Odin
and the "Norns": Goddesses of destiny. Urd, Verdandi and Skuld: who altogether judges everyone after death that they may judge these miscreants hard and that they not even after their death may escape their deeds of evil against other sons and daughters of Ask and Embla..
I set this "nid" until these drooling servants of evil and ignorance do penance and let each and one
stay by their land, their people and their faith wherever in our world they may choose to live!"
(This lovely little tidbit can be found at: http://www.multiart.nu/grimner/english/texts/nid.html)
Sources:
http://www.paganlibrary.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=4200
http://www.englisc-gateway.com/bbs/topic/16829-nithings/
http://symboldictionary.net/?p=789
http://www.multiart.nu/grimner/english/texts/nid.html
“Nithing“
A giant insult in Anglo-Saxon England would have been to call someone a "nithing". This word essentially means "vile coward" "villain" or "waste of space". It was often a title given to criminals, murdering scum, oath-breakers, those without honor and other lows of society. In ancient Germanic mythology, a nithing was a mythological creature. This creature was supposedly a fiend that caused harm and undoing to other people, often through magick. One solution to this problem was to scold the nithing. Which literally meant screaming at them (which I advocate in ANY situation) until either the spell broke/ or the person revealed their true nature. (Of course there was retribution if someone was accused of being a nithing, was screamed at, and later found to be innocent). There are historically some rune-stones that while dedicated to describing honorable feats of men/women, do save some space to condemn certain nithings.
Nidstang”
So what is a nidstang you ask? Well let me have the pleasure of telling you. :) Nidstang means "cursing pole", quite literally. Sometimes it is just called "Nithing" which is why I gave you the back-story to the word. The purpose of a Nidstang is to formally curse or hex someone whom you think really deserves it. The pole can also be used as a sort of protection. You make the pole, leaving the name blank, and place it in front of your home facing the road or something similar. This sort of "curses" unwelcomed or unwanted guests and visitors.
The pole is made like this: A large pole is made out of some form of wood. The wood is not important, unless you are specifically looking for something that has meaning to you or the person you are cursing in particular. You sharpen the ends of this pole until they are nice and pointy. Then, you inscribe certain things into the wood: the name of the person you dedicate this pole to, the actions they have done against you, what you wish to happen to them. You would add binding or cursing runes, runes you found suitable, etc. You may write the person's name repeatedly. You then speak the things you have written. This is called "nid", or the verbal cursing. You may choose to use specific deities in this: a common one is Hel, Goddess of Death. But any and all can be called for this purpose.
Here's an example from the Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson:
"Here I place this "nidstang" ("curse-pole"), and turneth it against King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild - turneth I this against all the gnomes and little people of the land, that they may all be lost, not finding their homes, until they drive King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild out of the country."
After the Nid is done, a horse's head is cut off and place on top of the pole (though sometimes they would use the entire carcass or skin, or if they weren't as serious about the curse or just didn't want the mess of a horse head, they would carve one out of wood as well or use a skull) and the pole is then turned in the direction that the user wishes to send the curse. Ideally, this would be in the direction of the individual's home you wish to curse, the country you wish to curse, the people you wish to curse, etc.
Modern:
More common today is a "virtual nid": usually someone will type up a nid and send it attached with a picture of a horse's head. I do not think these are effective at all. Perhaps the Nid would be, in calling the Gods or wights or whatnot to take retribution on someone for you. But without the physical presence of the pole- I cannot say.
The size of the pole depends upon the person, really, and the purpose for the pole. You can make a giant one, if you feel you are cursing many people or you want it to be extremely powerful. However, for individuals you can make some as small as wands, etc. I've heard it suggested that if you carve the horse head instead of using a real one, it is best to smear your own blood upon it to "wake" it. Some smear the blood on the teeth of the horse.
You do also have to be very careful and specific with this. It is possible that you curse more than you intended. It can curse the land around the individual you meant to curse as well, and this would technically be driving away the land wights. This is because the idea of the pole is to anger the spirits near the person and cause them to take their anger out upon the intended victim. Sometimes the intended purpose IS to drive out the wights, and this is called "alfreka" or "driving away the elves": this is to make a land spiritually dead through your cursing. This is not something to be taken lightly or done in jest! You need to be knowledgeable in what you are doing, or it could go badly for you.
From my own personal uses and experience with this, I have used a variety of different things to substitute for the horses head when I could not get one. I've used goats head, deer head, dog head, etc. I do not use them UNLESS I am VERY serious about what I intend and have thought it through. Yes, they can backfire on the person using them. Yes, I take the mentioning of it very seriously. No, it is not to be used for petty offenses or grudges. In my entire life and years of practice, I have raised 5 nidstangs and 2 of them were for the same person.
Hey! And just for some more interesting reading.. here's some more creative Nid!
"Hear Busla's pleading, soon it will be sung, all shall hear it, evil to all who listen: worst for HIM to whom it is addressed! AWAY you wights. Exceptional events shall happen, rocks shall shudder shake, worlds shall tremble, weather shall rage, and mighty things shall come!
Evil, I wish into your breast that poisonous vipers gnaw your heart. That your ears grow deaf forever and thy eyes shall burst out of your head! Sailing, your rigging shall burst and the oars pivots shall break, be torn to shreds the sails- sending it flying. The braces shall break all!
When you are riding, the bridle shall break, your horse shall go lame! All your paths shall be in the troll's hands. Your bed will be like burning straw, on the raised hide it shall be like the high sea.. but MUCH WORSE will happen to you then!
When you want a girl to enjoy your virility with, you shall never reach final satisfaction. HA HA!
Shall I tell you more?
Dwarfes, Thurses and witches... Mountain trolls, elves and red norns shall set your halls aflame. Giants shall hate you, stallions shall kick you, straw shall stab you, storm shall numb you, and pain shall be yours! Unless you obey my will!
Six shall come, guess their names. They are unbound and I will reveal them: unless you guess them right, dogs shall devour your corpse but your soul will go to Hel!" (This is the Pleading of Busla)
If you want to see an example of Nid, this one in particular is cursing those who defile our culture. So here you go:
"I curse!
I curse all of them who soils our glorious land with unworthy actions
I curse all of them who borrow sacred symbols: Gungnir, Mjolnir and Sacred Staffs -Odins spear, Thors hammer and runes, given by Odins hand and soil them with unholy deeds.
I curse all of them who in ugly costumes and shaven heads as well as suits and ties abuse the wisdom of our ancestors our ancient ways and our present faith. I curse all of them who wants to silent the mouths of others for themselves to be heard with their stupid bellowing. I curse all of them who puts themselves above others because of their paleness who tramples on others because of the color of their skin foreign language or a different faith.
Upon the heads of these miscreants I call all powers!
I call upon the gnomes, and the little people to scratch their bodies and disturb their sleep.I call upon the elf-smiths to lay an iron ring around their chests giving little room for their spirit little room for breath to speak of evil .I call upon the "rimthurses" (frostgiants) from the depth of Nifelhel-That they may freeze to their death before they get a chance to freeze others out. I call Surt and his "fire-thurses" that they may burn to their death before others may burn by their hands!
I call upon Loki that he may twist their vision so that they strike each other down before they strike anyone else down. I call upon Freya so that these young men never may share a woman's bed and never have sons or daughters of their own as long as they want to hinder others to do just that
And I call upon Frey that these young men have their manhood gelded, never being able to create anything good for themselves never getting peace or harvest as long as they want to hinder others to do just that
I call upon Thor that he may protect us from demonic evil and I call upon his wrath against the miscreants who wants to cause pain to others. I call upon Odin,All-father,He who gave spirit to man and woman, He who together with his brothers: Honer and Lodur, Gave life to man, Body and Soul:Ask and Embla- Man and Woman! I call upon Odin
and the "Norns": Goddesses of destiny. Urd, Verdandi and Skuld: who altogether judges everyone after death that they may judge these miscreants hard and that they not even after their death may escape their deeds of evil against other sons and daughters of Ask and Embla..
I set this "nid" until these drooling servants of evil and ignorance do penance and let each and one
stay by their land, their people and their faith wherever in our world they may choose to live!"
(This lovely little tidbit can be found at: http://www.multiart.nu/grimner/english/texts/nid.html)
Sources:
http://www.paganlibrary.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=4200
http://www.englisc-gateway.com/bbs/topic/16829-nithings/
http://symboldictionary.net/?p=789
http://www.multiart.nu/grimner/english/texts/nid.html