In Norse mythology, Naglfar is the ship made from the dead’s fingernails.
The Prose Edda describes Naglfar as a ship constructed from the fingernails and toenails of dead people. It is associated with the events preceding Ragnarök and is expected to transport forces connected with the final cosmic conflict. The image turns a familiar part of burial and bodily decay into a piece of apocalyptic mythology.
Naglfar is not the same vessel as Skíðblaðnir, Freyr’s magically folding ship, or Hringhorni, the ship used in Baldr’s funeral. The nail imagery also explains why one later folkloric tradition urged people to keep corpses’ nails trimmed: preventing the ship’s completion. That custom is often repeated in summaries, but the mythic ship itself is the core fact preserved in the Eddic tradition.