The Story of Yggdrasil,
The Great Tree of Life of the Nordic Legends
Gathered by Dorothy Hinkle-Uhlig

All that has happened, and all the regions of the world, lie under the branches of the ash, Yggdrasil, greatest and best of trees.  Yggdrasil’s roots penetrate deep into the spiritual and its branches spread out over the whole world. It gives life to itself; it gives life to the unborn.  The winds whirl round it and Yggdrasil croons and groans.  Yggdrasil always was and is and will be.

The cosmos consists of three worlds.  Yggdrasil is the axis that holds the three worlds together.  There are three roots, and each root sinks into one world.  There is the world of the Asgard, the world of the gods. Here live the Aesir, the warrior gods, and the Vanir, the fertility gods, and also the light elves.  Then there is the second world, Mitgard, the world of the human.  Here live the giants, the dark elves, and the dwarfs.  The third world is Nilfheim.  Here lie the worlds of Hel.  Here live the dead.  It is dark and misty and vague and ominous. Yggdrasil will give shelter and care to Lif and Lifthrasir, during the great battle Ragnorok, at the end of the era.  These will be the only surviving humans and they will then repeople the new world in the new time.

Yggdrasil sustains and nourishes all the worlds.  In Nilfheim a dragon, Nidhogg, continually gnaws at the root. In the topmost branches sits an eagle with a hawk perched between its eyes.  The squirrel, Ratatosk, runs up and down the trunk carrying insults from Nidhogg to the eagle.  The tree drips dew, sweet and fruitful, and the bees make honey of it.  Deer and goats leap along the branches and tear off the new shoots. 

Yggdrasil, the tree that ensures continuity, that suffers, that cares for all living creatures, is in turn sustained by the three springs, one under each root.

Sunk under the root of Asgard is the well of Urd, the well of the heart forces. Here the three Norns are spinning the threads of destiny.  They are Urd, who is the past, who is fate, and Verdandi, who is the present, who knows of the existing and the becoming,  and Skuld, who knows what should be in the future.  The Norns of Urd draw water from the spring every day and mix it with the clay that lies round about the spring.  With this they sprinkle the ash so that its branches shall not wither nor decay. 

The second root delves into Jotunheim and under this root is the spring of Mimir. Its waters are the source of wisdom.  From here comes the spoken word.

And in the middle of Nilfheim under the third root is the spring of Hwergelmir.  From here come the everflowing twelve rivers that stream through the whole world creating all life that is.

Yggdrasil soars over all that is and all the forces of the world have been brought together in this great ash.   Yggdrasil embodies the words Ygg- I and drasil- carry. Yggdrasil is the carrier of the I.

Yggdrsil who was and is and will be.