• ! I
p f a n t bot'e, b e g e l^ / , orii. bijrio/.
is in consonance with a Vedic tradition that plants were _ created
three ages before the gods. In India the idea of a primordial
cosmogonic tree, vast as the world itself, and the generator thereof,
is very prevalent ; and in the Scandinavian prose Edda we find the
Skalds shadowing forth an all-pervading mundane Ash, called
Yggdrasill, beneath whose shade the gods assemble every day in
council, and whose branches spread over the whole world, and even
reach above heaven, whilst its roots penetrate to the infernal
regions. This cloud-tree of the Norsemen is thought to be a
symbol of universal nature.
The accompanying illustration is taken from Finn Magnusen’s
pictorial representation of the Yggdrasill myth, and depicts his
conception of
Rotii)© © Y ^ o r f i l _ - i J 7 e e .
According to the Eddaic accounts, the Ash Yggdrasill is the
greatest and best of all trees. One of its stems springs from the
central primordial abyss—from the subterranean source of matter—
runs up through the earth, which it supports, and issuing out of
the celestial mountain in the world’s centre, called Asgard, spreads
its branches over the entire universe. These wide-spread branches
are the ethereal or celestial regions; their leaves, the clouds; their
buds or fruits, the stars. Four harts run across the branches of
the tree, and bite the buds: these are the four cardinal winds.
Perched upon the top branches is an eagle, and between his eyes
sits a hawk : the eagle symbolises the air, the hawk the wmd-still
sether. A squirrel runs up and down the Ash, and seeks to cause
strife between the eagle and Nidhogg, a monster, which is constantly
gnawing the roots : the squirrel signifies hail and other
atmospherical phenomena; Nidhogg and the serpents that gnaw the
roots of the mundane tree are the volcanic agencies which are
constantly seeking to destroy earth’s foundations. Another stem
springs in the warm south over the sethereal Urdar fountain, where
the gods sit in judgment. In this fountain swim two swans, the
progenitors of all that species: these swans are, by Finn
Magnusen, supposed to typify the sun and moon. Near this
fountain dwell three maidens, who fix the lifetime of all rnen, and
are called Norns : every day they draw water from the spring, and
with it sprinkle the Ash in order that its branches may not rot
and wither away. This water is so holy, that everything placed
in the spring becomes as white as the film within an egg-shell.
The dew that falls from the tree on the earth men call honey-dew,
and it is the food of the bees. The third stem of Yggdrasill takes
its rise in the cold and cheerless regions of the north (the land of
the Frost Giants), over the source of the ocean, typified by a
spring called Mimir’s Well, in which wisdom and wit lie hidden.
Mimir, the owner of this spring, is full of wisdom because he drinks
IFl© M u r i ^ a a e W t e e .
From Film Magiiiiseii s ^ Eddalisren'
[ t o f a c e p a g e 2.