Yggdrasil

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Yggdrasil is the World Tree in Norse mythology, connecting the worlds of the Norse cosmology; some reckon it to be an ash, whilst others believe it to be the yew.

According mythology, Ásgard, Álfheim and Vanaheim rest on the branches of Yggdrasil. The trunk is the world-axis piercing through the center of Miðgarðr (often called Midgard), around which Jötunheim is situated, and below which lies Niðavellir, also called Svartálfheim. The three roots stretch down to Hel, Niflheim, and Muspelheim, although only the first world hosts a spring for Yggdrasil.

The name Yggdrasil is most commonly accepted as being a composite of ygg, meaning "terrible" (an epithet of Odin), and drasil, meaning "steed"; the whole being rendered as "Odin's Steed". The gallows are sometimes described in Old Norse poetry as the "horse of the hanged". Another interpretation of the name is "terrible horse", in which case the association with Odin may be secondary. A third interpretation, with etymological difficulties, is "yew-column", associating the tree with the Eihwaz rune.