Land of Nod - Definition

Land of Nod is the name of the land, to "the east of Eden," to which Cain was banished after murdering his brother Abel mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. The word "nod" means "wandering."

"So Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod." (Genesis 4:16)

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). Neil Gaiman also used the term to refer to The Dreaming (home of Dream of the Endless, as well as Cain and Abel) in his Sandman series of graphic novels.

Land of Nod is also 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.