A World Tree

 So there I was, trying not to look at the sun. Because you’re not supposed to look at the sun. Everybody knows that. But somehow the sun makes you want to look at it anyway. It’s sitting right there, spectacular beyond reason, this enormous burning thing in the sky, and the one thing you’re told is, don’t look directly at it.

So I didn’t. But right there in front of me was a tree. Man, trees go deep.

I mean, right? They’re everywhere. You see them every day. You drive past them. Park under them. Sit beneath them. People put them in their yards and barely think about them. Just tree. But how deep does a tree go? Apparently all the way down. And I’m standing here looking at what I think is an oak. Probably an oak.

But what if it wasn't an oak tree? What if I was staring straight at a World Tree. Yggdrasil. 

In the old Norse stories, Yggdrasil is the living structure holding existence together. It’s a immense sacred ash tree. Its branches stretch out over the world and into the heavens, while its roots reach down into different regions of existence. The gods travel there to hold meetings, make judgments, settle things. 

Yggdrasil has three enormous roots stretching in different directions. Under one is Hel, under another are the frost giants, and under another is humankind. Around the roots are these incredible wells and springs. There’s Uroarbrunnr, the Well of Fate, where the Norns Uror, Veroandi, and Skuld are associated with the tree and with the destinies of human beings. They even tend Yggdrasil, bringing water and sacred mud to keep it from decaying. Then there’s Mimisbrunnr, Mimir’s Well, associated with wisdom and understanding. Odin gives up one of his eyes just for a drink from it because he wants that knowledge so badly. And then there’s Hvergelmir, this roaring primordial spring where serpents live, including Niohoggr, who gnaws at Yggdrasil from underneath.

And the tree itself is crawling with animals. Way up at the top is this enormous unnamed eagle that supposedly possesses great knowledge, and between its eyes sits a hawk named Veorfolnir. Down underneath everything you’ve got Niohoggr chewing on the roots. And running back and forth between them is a squirrel named Ratatoskr, whose job is apparently to carry insults and hostile messages between the eagle above and the creature below. There are also four stags moving around in the branches eating the leaves, plus other serpents underneath chewing away at it. Yggdrasil is constantly suffering. Things are eating it from above, things are eating it from below, and parts of it are decaying. 

The interpretation of the name is like “Odin’s horse.” Yggr is one of Odin’s names, and drasil means horse. In old poetic language a gallows could be described as the “horse” of the person hanging from it. And Odin hangs himself from a tree for nine nights. He wounds himself with a spear, sacrifices himself to himself, and hangs there in order to obtain the secret knowledge of the runes.  So now Yggdrasil starts becoming the Tree of the World, the Tree of Fate, the Tree of Wisdom, the Tree of Death, and possibly the tree where Odin essentially passes through death in order to obtain knowledge.

Dew falling from Yggdrasil into the valleys, this is the honeydew that bees feed on. So something from the World Tree is literally dripping down into ordinary earthly life, onto the grass, feeding the bees. And when Ragnarök comes and the whole cosmic order starts falling apart, Yggdrasil trembles. The tree doesn’t just stand there while the apocalypse happens around it. The world shakes, and the World Tree shakes with it. Yet life survives, the world returns, something continues.

Then I thought, well, I'm just staring at this tree and sitting here in a, in a blanket on my patio, I should go back inside before anybody sees me. It's gonna be a good day.