Ghost Ship Nidhogg

Name information
English	Ghost Ship "Nidhogg"
Location information
Located in	Baltic Sea
Factions	Flying Dutchman
Real world information
Manga Debut	Chapter 13
Anime Debut	Episode 15

The Ghost Ship "Nidhogg" (幽霊船「ニーズヘッグ」, Yūreisen "Nīzuheggu"), also known by townspeople as the Black Dragon (黒竜, Kokuryū) is a ghost ship operated by the Flying Dutchman, who uses it to collect souls for the Kishin Asura.

Location

As it is a ship, it appears on the ocean, surrounded always by a thick mist. It sails mostly on the Baltic Sea, devouring huge chunks off of coastal towns along with the souls of the townspeople. People know when the ship is near because of the eerie mist that descends down on the village.

Appearance

• The Nidhogg consumes a Baltic Sea village
• The Ghost Ship Nidhogg
• The Nidhogg is full of souls
• The Flying Dutchman aims the Nidhogg's cannons
• The Nidhogg, before it sinks
• Crona's Scream Alpha attack destroys the Nidhogg
• The Nidhogg is sunk
• The Flying Dutchman escapes

1/8

Nidhogg appears as an old wooden pirate ship, with shredded black sails and spikes coming out from below the deck. Skeletons litter the deck, impaled with swords or by the spikes coming up from below the deck, or tied to the mast. The most notable part of the ship is that it has a face near front of it. On either side of the front of the ship, a long hook from one of the wooden beams on the ship's mast hangs down and pulls up a bit of the woodwork on the ship, revealing a large globular green eye. The front of the ship where the figurehead should be, is malformed with dozens of wooden planks hanging outwards, making it look like a giant mouth, which it uses to take massive bites out of landmasses.

Inside the ship, it is inhabited by ghosts of the people whose souls had been taken and imprisoned in the ship. Their souls are all stored away in the ship by the Flying Dutchman, who controls the ship.

Various powerful cannons are also installed on the ship, and are still usable.

Connection to the Flying Dutchman

“	This ship is my body and my body is this ship.	”
—Flying Dutchman, Episode 15

The Evil Spirit known as the Flying Dutchman is known to be able to possess various locations and buildings and forming a symbiotic relationships with them. With Nidhogg, which was originally a sunken ship, the Flying Dutchman is able to bring it back to surface and operates it also. His body is connected to the ship, meaning that he can fully control its direction and movements. It also means that no matter how much punishment his body takes, the Flying Dutchman cannot be defeated without sinking Nidhogg itself, as both are connected with one another.

Part in the Story

Death the Kid, Liz and Patty are sent on a mission to investigate the incidents involving entire coastal villages been 'eaten' by a large unknown creature. Their investigation leads them to the Ghost Ship Nidhogg. After venturing on board, the trio make it below the deck and find a large amount of Human Souls. Kid, about to collect them, is interrupted by the Flying Dutchman, who uses his link with Nidhogg to separate Liz from Patty. He explains to Kid how he is collecting souls for the Kishin. When Kid assumes this is Ragnarok, the Flying Dutchman corrects him, saying that it is 'the Kishin right next to them' that these souls are for.

Kid is unable to fight without using both sisters symmetrically, so they can only evade the Flying Dutchman's attacks until they finally reunite with Liz. However, before they can engage with the Evil Spirit, Crona appears and slices him in half. Crona has Ragnarok consume all of the souls in the ship in order to unleash Ragnarok's dragon form. As Kid does battle with Crona, the Flying Dutchman, who is still alive as Nidhogg is not sunk, fires the ship's cannons at Crona, who remains unharmed. With an enhanced Screech Alpha, Crona cuts the ship in half, sinking it and defeating the Flying Dutchman for now.

Trivia

• The ship's name comes from the name of a dragon in Norse mythology, Nidhogg. Its name means 'Malice Striker' and it has dark connotations to its character, just like the ghost ship in the Soul Eater series. In the Soul Eater world, Nidhogg is also the name of a ghost ship that haunts the Baltic Seas according to local legend.
• In Norse mythology, the Nidhogg gnaws at the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil. It is said in Norse mythology that the arrival of Nidhogg will herald the coming of Ragnarok, a period of time in the future in which many of the Norse gods will die and the world will be submerged in water, but revive again, more fertile than before. Therefore, it is rather fitting that Ragnarok, the Soul Eater character named after this era, along with Crona, appear on Nidhogg.
• Although the Flying Dutchman claims that he and the Nidhogg are one, hence any damage done to the ship is done to him, the reverse does not seem to be true. When Crona beheads the Dutchman, no similar damage is discernible to the Nidhogg. This relationship between the Dutchman and the Nidhogg also seems inconsistent: while Crona's bisection of the Nidhogg splits the Dutchman's upper jaw in half, Crona's attack does not also split the Dutchman's body below his jaw.
• Though the shape of the Nidhogg's 'mouth' at the front of the ship is supposedly horizontal, the teeth marks shown on the island where the ship took a bite out of it was shown to have a vertical mark left over.