Níð
In historical Germanic society, níð (ᚾᛁᚦ, Old English: nīþ, nīð; Old Dutch: nīth) was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain.
A person affected with the stigma is considered a níðingr (ᚾᛁᚦᛁᚴᛦ, Old English: nīðing, nīðgæst, or Old High German: nidding).
Thus, it is apparent that ergi of a níðingr was strongly connoted not only with sorcery, unmanliness, weakness, and effeminacy but also especially with lecherousness or sexual perversion in the view of Old Scandinavian people during the Early and High Middle Ages.
[7] Níðings had to be scolded, i. e. they had to be shouted in their faces what they were in most derogatory terms, as scolding (Anglo-Saxon scald, Norse skald, Icelandic skalda, OHG scelta, Modern German Schelte; compare scoff, Modern Dutch schelden, Anglo-Saxon scop, and flyting) was supposed to break the concealing seiðr spell and would thus force the fiend to give away its true nature.
[citation needed] The actual meaning of the adjective argr or ragr [Anglo-Saxon earg] was the nature or appearance of effeminacy, especially by obscene acts.
[9] Beside by words, scolding could also be performed by pejorative visual portrayals, especially by so-called níðstangs or nīþing poles.
[10] A "classical definition of ergi is found in the scoldings (see section below) of opposing warriors Gudmund and Sinfyötli in the New Helgi song, offending each other as earg and thus challenging each other before a fight.
Criminal murder differed from legitimate killing as by being performed in secret insidiously, away from the eyes of the community that had not been involved in the matter.
[17]Since sorcery "was not accepted officially, it could not serve the kinship as a whole, only private cravings; no decent person was safe from the secret arts of sorcerers,"[18] and as nīþ was insidiousness, a níðing was also thought to be a pathological liar and an oathbreaker, prone to committing perjury and especially treason.
Summing up the relations between nīþ and criminality: Severe misdeeds were perjury deeds, especially if they had been committed insidiously and in secret.
(see for example[22]) The outlawed did not have any rights, he was exlex (Latin for "outside of the legal system"), in Anglo-Saxon utlah, Middle Low German uutlagh, Old Norse utlagr.
"[24] Ancient dehumanizing terms meaning both "wolf" and "strangler" were common as synonyms for outlaws: OHG warc, Salian wargus, Anglo-Saxon wearg, Old Norse vargr.
[33] To prevent them from coming back as the undead, their bodies had to be made entirely immobile, especially by impaling,[34][35][36] burning up,[37][38][39][40][41][42] drowning in rivers or bogs (see also Tacitus),[42][43] or even all of the above.
[44]It was believed that the reason for a nīþing to resort to insidious seiðr "witchery" in order to cause harm instead of simply attacking people by decent, belligerent violence to achieve the same end was that it was a cowardly and weak creature, further indicating its being direct opposite of Old Norse warrior ethos.
By definition, any seiðberender (practitioner of seiðr) was immediately rendered argr by these very despicable magic practices.
[49] The nīþing used its malicious seiðr magic to destroy anything owned and made by man, ultimately the human race and Midgard itself.
It was often hard to distinguish these attributes from actual physical illness, and since "any eeriness and incomprehensibility was what made people suspect a person of being a nithing, whether this was based upon physical anomalies or mental traits", they were often regarded as mentally ill even during ancient times already, as defined by actually or perceivedly deviant social behaviour and feeling.
