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Horse Heads and Tree Trunks
The Pole of Insult
Moonlight breaks through a shoddy ceiling of
leaves, a flame flickers on the ground below; a lone man sits in quiet
contemplation. Hands with sax move swiftly, risting shapes on a pole.
Sounds are hummed, blood is spilled; the ceremony begins. He quickly
opens a burlap sack, pulling a horrifying shape from it, a horse head,
grim and matted with cold blood. The head is placed upon the pole, the
gore-column lowered into a hole in the ground. The black flames of Hel
are pulled through it, as the vitkr's curse is roared throughout the
nine worlds. The horse's mouth, opened wide, emits the shrieking spell.
The fabric of the universe has been folded, the enemy is doomed.
The Nidhstong, the pole of insult, is
perhaps the greatest magical working of the Teutonic peoples. It was,
and still is, used to bring misfortune to it's targets, whether they be
individuals, or whole nations. This essay will take a look at the
history of the nidhstong, it's underlying symbolism, method of
construction, and modern day examples of it's usage.
History
The best example I have found of the nidhstong,
comes from the German theologian, Saxo Grammaticus. In his book 'The
Danish History' he tells of a group of wizards who gather together to
erect a nidhstong. His detailed description is as follows…
" So he first put on a
pole the severed head of a horse that had been sacrificed to the gods,
and setting sticks beneath displayed the jaws grinning agape; hoping
that he would foil the first efforts of Erik by the horror of this wild
spectacle."
The disastrous effects of the pole were well known
to it's target, as Saxo later states…
"Erik was already on his
road to meet them, and saw the head from afar off, and, understanding
the whole foul contrivance, he bade his men keep silent and behave
warily; no man was to be rash or hasty of speech, lest by some careless
outburst they might give some opening to the sorceries; adding that if
talking happened to he needed, he would speak for all."
The next best example, is the nidhstong erected by
Egil Skallagrimsson against the wicked King Eirik and his wife Gunnhild.
The goal of this particular curse was to drive the spirits of the land,
the Landvaettir, crazy until they had driven the gruesome twosome away.
This pole was made on a hazel branch, with the formula of his curse
risted on the pole in runes. The words of the formula are as follows…
"Here I set up a pole of
insult against King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild…and I direct this insult
against the guardian spirits of this land, so that every one of them
shall go astray, neither to figure nor find their dwelling places until
they have driven King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild from this country."
The curse apparently worked, as Eirik and Gunnhild
were forced to flee from Norway, after only two years of being in power.
This also sets the precedent of nidhstongs being used against nations
and groups of people, rather than individuals. There are other sorted
examples of Nidhstongs in action, the Vatnsdoela saga tells of another
"pole of infamy" set up against someone who did not show up
for a duel. The actual words of the curse go something like this
"Let him be rejected by
all and find no honest neighbors, let him be stricken by the Gods'
wrath, and let him be named fridh violator!"
© 1998 Brian Smith
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