Malice Striker

Níðhöggr the serpent 

the dragon 

gnaws on the root of the world

it chews on the dead

lying on Nástrǫnd

the shore of corpses

where the oath-breakers 

and the unfaithful

are sent in the afterlife.

In Niflheimr

the world of mist

this wyrm, the malice striker 

is held beneath the roots 

of the world tree

eternally it tears at the wood

waiting to free itself. 

From Niðafjöll 

the hills

where the moon is dark 

in the northern underworld

the dragon carries

the dead that it may 

suck the blood of the slain

until Ragnarök

the gods’ twilight 

passes over the world.

Early alchemical ouroboros illustration with the words ἓν τὸ πᾶν ("The All is One") from the work of Cleopatra the Alchemist in MS Marciana gr. Z. 299. (10th Century)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros#/media/File:Chrysopoea_of_Cleopatra_1.png