Land of Nod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Land of Nod is a place in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, located "to the east of Eden", to which Cain was banished after murdering his brother Abel. The Hebrew word nod means "wandering".
- "And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." (Genesis 4:16, King James Version)
This passage is generally recognized as a mistranslation; "Nod" (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb "to wander" (לנדוד). The simplest interpretation of Genesis 4:16 is that Cain was cursed to wander the land forever, not that he was exiled to a "Land of Wanderers", otherwise absent from the Old Testament.
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[edit] Places named "Land of Nod"
Land of Nod is the name of a small hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located at the far end of a two mile long road which joins the A614 road at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor.
The Land of Nod is also a small forested estate situated in Headley Down, Hampshire owned by the Whitaker family. Its history dates back to the Middle Ages when the owner, Mr Cain, was excommunicated from the Church; he named his home The Land of Nod, thus making direct reference to Genesis 4:16.
[edit] Popular culture references
[edit] In literature
The term has more recently been associated with being asleep, and was supposedly first used in this context in print by Jonathan Swift in his A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738). Another is a poem titled "The Land of Nod" by Robert Louis Stevenson from the A Child's Garden of Verses and Underwoods collection.
In John Steinbeck's East of Eden, the Bible was read to the character of Cal Trask (played by James Dean in the 1955 movie adaptation), speaking of him as Cain, and being banished to the Land of Nod, East of Eden.
Neil Gaiman used the term to refer to The Dreaming in The Sandman series of graphic novels.
[edit] In games
In the World of Darkness role-playing setting by White Wolf Game Studio, the land of Nod is the home in exile of Caine, the first vampire.
The biblical quote is mentioned in the Command and Conquer video game, and is thought to be the origin of the name for the Brotherhood of Nod, as the group's charismatic leader is also known only as Kane. Kane's command center, known as the Temple of Nod, also houses a coffin bearing the name Abel upon its surface, and the preserved body of his most trusted officer, Seth, whom Kane shot in the head after Seth's attempted coup d'etat. Their relationship is never explained; however, upon introducing himself to the player, Seth states that he is "Seth. Just Seth. From God, to Kane, to Seth."
[edit] In music
Tom Waits mentions the land of Nod in his song "Singapore" from the 1985 album Rain Dogs: "We sail tonight for Singapore, we're all as mad as hatters here I've fallen for a tawny Moor, took off to the land of Nod..."
Bob Dylan's song "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum", from the 2001 album Love and Theft, refers to those "Livin' in the Land of Nod, Trustin' their fate to the hands of God".
The German rock group Unloved uses the phrase "heading nod" in the corresponding song from the 2006 album "Killersongs" as a metaphor for dealing with unpardonable guilt. Nod becomes not a certain land but a state of self-forgiveness ("It only remains for me to leave, a ridiculous 'sorry' on my lips. it only remains for me to live, telling, I didn't mean it").
[edit] Other uses
Colloquially, the state of heroin or opioid intoxication is referred to as "being in the land of Nod". This is because the most pleasant phase of the high is characterized by people "nodding off" into their own little world.
The term is also used on the AM radio show Coast to Coast AM to describe the location from where the program is transmitted.
[edit] References to the "Land of Nod" in Literature
From Chapter 3 of Moby Dick by Herman Melville
"At last I slid off into a light doze, and had pretty nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, when I heard a heavy footfall in the passage ..."
[edit] External links
Musician / cartoonist Sean Hartter refers to "Nod" as a place with his "The Man From Nod" http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=156884&T=2382 electronic/live music project. Here "Nod" is meant to be a wilderness of jumbled ideas and disjointed notions, the opposite of Eden...much more like the state of a dreaming mind.
