Nótt Tattoo Meaning

Night, origin, the dark mother, and the darkness that is not absence but source.

Nótt is the Night herself — the dark mother of the Norse cosmos, black as her name, among the oldest beings in existence, who rides across the sky on her frost-maned horse and from whom come both the Earth and the Day; the darkness that is not absence but source. To carry Nótt is to carry night, origin, the dark mother, and the darkness that is not absence but source — the primordial dark that came before the light, the mother of Earth and of Day, the night that produces rather than merely conceals.

Nótt (Old Norse for 'Night') is the personification of night in Norse cosmology — the Night herself given a body and set riding across the heavens. The Prose Edda describes her as black and dark 'in accordance with her name': she is night made into a person, dark of hair and aspect, the embodiment of the darkness. In the great nightly procession of the sky, Nótt rides first, leading, before her son Dagr (Day) follows in his turn.

Her horse is named Hrímfaxi, 'Frost Mane.' As Hrímfaxi gallops across the night sky, the horse foams at the bit, and the foam falls from its mouth down to the earth below — and that falling foam is the morning dew, the wetness found on the grass at first light. The dew of every morning is the spittle of Night's horse, scattered across the world as she completes her ride. Nótt is among the very oldest beings in the entire Norse cosmos, older than the Aesir, the gods themselves — she predates them, a primordial figure from the deep beginning of things. She is the ancient dark rider, leading the night across the sky, her horse's frost-foam becoming the dawn's dew. The Norse Nótt rides the night sky on Hrímfaxi, whose foam falls as morning dew — a being older than the gods. The Norse Nótt is the dark rider and the frost-maned horse — Nótt (Old Norse: 'Night'), the personification of night, described in the Prose Edda as black and dark 'in accordance with her name'; she rides first in the nightly procession, her horse Hrímfaxi ('Frost Mane') foaming at the bit, the foam falling to earth as morning dew; she is among the oldest beings in the Norse cosmos, predating the Aesir gods — the ancient dark rider leading the night across the sky, her horse's frost-foam becoming the dawn's dew.

Nótt appears in the Prose Edda (Snorri Sturluson, c. 1220 CE) in Gylfaginning and in the Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál. Her horse Hrímfaxi ('Frost Mane') is paired with Dagr's Skinfaxi ('Shining Mane') — the two horses represent the complementary nature of night and day rather than their opposition. The morning dew mythologized as Hrímfaxi's bit-foam is a characteristic Norse pattern of explaining natural phenomena through the actions of divine beings and their animals. Nótt's daughter Jörð (Earth) becoming the mother of Thor creates a lineage in which Night is the grandmother of the thunder god — the most actively worshipped deity in the Norse pantheon descends from the personification of darkness. The Old Norse nótt is the etymological ancestor of the English 'night,' German Nacht, Dutch nacht — like her son Dagr/Day, Nótt's name persists in the daily vocabulary of Germanic languages. The Prose Edda describes her as 'swarthy and dark' — she is one of the few Norse figures explicitly described by skin color, the darkness being understood as her essential nature made physical.

Nótt across cultures

Related symbols