Нагльфар: Корабль мертвых в мифологии и культуре

Boat in Norse mythology
the Swedish black metal band

In Norse mythology, Naglfar or Naglfari (Old Norse "nail farer") is a boat made entirely from the fingernails and toenails of the dead. During the events of Ragnarök, Naglfar is foretold to sail to Vígríðr, ferrying hordes of monsters that will do battle with the gods. Naglfar is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, also composed in the 13th century. The boat itself has been connected by scholars with a larger pattern of ritual hair and nail disposal among Indo Europeans, stemming from Proto Indo European custom, and it may be depicted on the Tullstorp Runestone in Scania, Sweden.

If the images on the Tullstorp Runestone are correctly identified as being from Ragnarök, then Naglfar is shown below the monstrous wolf Fenrir. It has been pointed out that the ship image has beakheads both fore and aft unlike any known Viking ship, and is thus likely to be a symbolic ship. The inscription mentions the name Ulfr ("wolf"), and the name Kleppir/Glippir. The last name is not fully understood, but may have represented Glæipiʀ which is similar to Gleipnir which was the rope with which the Fenrir wolf was bound. The two male names may have inspired the theme depicted on the runestone.

In his study of treatment of hair and nails among the Indo Europeans, Bruce Lincoln compares Snorri's Prose Edda comments about nail disposal to an Avestan text, where Ahura Mazdā warns that daevas and xrafstras will spring from hair and nails that lay without correct burial, noting their conceptual similarities. Lincoln comments that "the specific image of Naglfar, the 'Nail ship', is undoubtedly specific to the Germanic world, although it does date to an ancient date within that area. But the basic idea on which it is based – that the improper disposal of hair and nails is an act which threatens the well being of the cosmos – does ascend to the Indo European period, as can be seen from comparisons [with Iranian myth]."

The ship appears in the videogame The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and in its spin off game Gwent as the vehicle the evil Wild Hunt uses to travel between worlds. The ship also appears in the videogame World of Warcraft in the Legion expansion. In the dungeon, Maw of Souls, players completed the last half of the 2 part dungeon on the Naglfar. This culminates as you defeat the final boss of the dungeon, Helya. In EVE Online, the Naglfar is a dreadnought capital ship. The magic tome of the boss character Lyon in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is named Naglfar. John Myers Myers made Naglfar the name of the ship sunk in the opening paragraphs of Silverlock, setting his hero loose from the modern world to traipse his adventurous way into realms of myth and legend. Naglfar is the name of a Swedish black metal band. Naglfar is the central focus of the novel The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan, where the main characters go on a quest to prevent its launching.

Crumlin Pedersen, Ole & Thye, Birgitte Munch (eds.) (1995). The Ship as Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia: Papers from an International Research Seminar at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, 5th 7th May 1994. Nationalmuseet. Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda. Everyman. Lincoln, Bruce (1977). "Treatment of Hair and Fingernails among the Indo Europeans" from History of Religions, Vol. 16, No. 4, The Mythic Imagination (May, 1977), pages 351—362. University of Chicago Press.