Yggdrasil - The Mighty Tree
Yggdrasil is the world-tree of Norse mythology, a vast ash whose branches, Snorri Sturluson says, spread over the whole world and stand above heaven, and whose three roots reach to three wells. The gods hold their court at it every day. Today it is often called the Norse tree of life, but that label is modern; the name itself most likely means "Odin's steed". The poem Völuspá mentions nine worlds alongside the world-tree, yet no medieval text names the Nine Realms or sets them on its branches and roots.
What we see in cinemas and on TV is only a small fraction of what Norse mythology is made of. In this article we look at one of its best-known images, a tree that stands at the centre of the Norse world, and at what the medieval sources actually say about it.
Gods, giants, the dead and the Norns of fate all appear at its roots or in its branches. So here is the story of the tree called Yggdrasil (askr Yggdrasils, "the ash of Yggdrasil", in Old Norse).
Yggdrasil – the World Tree, or "Tree of Life"
A modern artwork of Yggdrasil as a tree of life. The pattern of circles behind it is not a Norse motif.
As always, we will start from the beginning, with the name.
Odin has many names, and one of them is Yggr, "the terrible one". Drasill is a poetic word for horse. Put together, Yggdrasill most likely means "Odin's steed", and the usual explanation is grim: Norse poets could call the gallows a horse that the hanged man rides, so "Odin's steed" is the tree on which Odin hanged himself (more on that below). Other readings exist. Some scholars take askr Yggdrasils as "the ash of Odin's horse", the tree where his horse stands tethered, and a minority reading links the first part of the name to an old word for yew. "Tree of life" is not among them. It is a modern name, borrowed from other traditions, even though it is how many people look for Yggdrasil today.
The Importance of the Viking Tree of Life
The tree stands over a well. In Völuspá (stanza 19) the seeress says she knows an ash standing, called Yggdrasil, a high tree wet with white mud; from it come the dews that fall in the valleys, and it stands ever green over Urðarbrunnr, the well of Urðr. From the lake under the tree, stanza 20 goes on, come three maidens who know many things: Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld. They cut on a slip of wood, laid down laws and chose the lives of the children of men. These are the Norns. The poem says they carved on wood, not into the tree; the Norns carving fate into Yggdrasil's trunk is a modern retelling.
Urðr is often written "Wyrd" in English books, after the Old English word for fate, and the three names are popularly explained as past, present and future. That reading leans on what the names mean (Urðr is close to "what has happened", Verðandi to "becoming", Skuld to "what is owed" or "what shall be"); the sources themselves never say it.
The sources are clear that Yggdrasil is an ash: Völuspá and Grímnismál call it askr, and Grímnismál (stanza 44) says it is the greatest of trees. Two details have made some scholars wonder about a yew instead. Völuspá calls the tree ever green, and Snorri says the harts in its branches bite its barr, a word usually used for needles. The texts say ash; the yew is a modern suggestion.
In his Gylfaginning (chapters 15 and 16), written around 1220, Snorri Sturluson calls the ash the greatest and best of all trees. Its branches spread over the whole world and stand above heaven, and three roots hold it up. It is the gods' chief holy place, where they hold their court every day. In Völuspá (stanza 2) the seeress remembers nine worlds and "the glorious measuring-tree below the earth", which most readers take to be Yggdrasil. That is as close as the sources come to tying the nine worlds to the tree; none of them says which nine they are or hangs them on its branches.
Asgard, the home of the gods, is often drawn at the top of the tree, but no medieval text puts it there. Snorri says the gods built Asgard in the middle of the world, and that Odin could look out over all worlds from his high seat Hliðskjálf.
When Ragnarök comes, Völuspá (stanza 47) says, the ash Yggdrasil shakes where it stands, the old tree groans, and the giant breaks loose. The poem does not say the tree falls. In Vafþrúðnismál (stanza 45) two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, hide in Hoddmímir's wood (Hoddmímis holt) and live on morning dew, and new generations come from them; Snorri says they hide there while Surtr's fire burns the world. Many scholars think Hoddmímir's wood is Yggdrasil, since the wise Mímir's name seems to be in it, but no source says so.
Odin's Hanging on the Tree and the Discovery of the Runes
Runes are at the heart of the best-known story connected with Yggdrasil, which comes from the poem Hávamál. In stanza 138 Odin says that he hung on a windy tree for nine whole nights, wounded with a spear and given to Odin, himself to himself, on that tree of which no one knows from what roots it runs.
The poem never names the tree. Most scholars identify it with Yggdrasil, because the name "Odin's steed" fits a gallows that Odin rode, and because a tree whose roots no one knows suits the world-tree. It is a strong inference, but it is not stated in the text.
Stanza 139 goes on: no one refreshed him with bread or with drink; he peered down, took up the runes, took them up screaming, and fell back from there. That is all the poem tells. The well of Urðr, Odin watching the Norns from his throne, and Odin forbidding the other gods to help him are modern additions; Hávamál mentions none of them.
After the ordeal, stanzas 140 and 141 say, Odin learned nine mighty songs, got a drink of the precious mead, and began to grow wise and to thrive. Later in the poem he lists the charms he knows: one to help against strife and sorrow, one to blunt the blades of his enemies, and one that uses the runes he won, carved and coloured, to make a hanged man walk and talk with him.
Readers have long noticed a likeness between Odin on the tree and Christ on the cross, and scholars still debate whether the Christian story shaped the poem. Hávamál was written down around 1270 in Christian Iceland, but the hanging god may be much older. Here are the parallels and where they part:
- First: Both were pierced by a spear, though Christ only after he had died,
- Second: Odin is given no bread or drink; Christ is given sour wine on a sponge,
- Third: Both are a sacrifice, but Odin gives himself to himself to win knowledge, while Christ dies for others,
- Fourth: Odin hangs for nine nights; Christ died on the cross the same day and rose on the third.
Given these points, whether the story borrowed from Christianity or is older than it remains an open question.
Inhabitants of the Nordic Tree of Life
The Norns Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld
Several creatures live in and under Yggdrasil. Snorri says an eagle sits in its branches, wise in many things, and between its eyes sits a hawk called Veðrfölnir. Below, in the spring Hvergelmir, lives the dragon Níðhöggr, with more serpents than any tongue can count. Grímnismál names six of them and says they will always gnaw at the tree's twigs, while Níðhöggr gnaws the root from below.
Another important inhabitant is the squirrel Ratatoskr. Ratatoskr runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying words between the eagle and Níðhöggr: Grímnismál says he brings the eagle's words down to the dragon, and Snorri calls them words of envy. The sources give no reason for his mischief. Four harts, Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, run in the branches and bite the foliage.
Grímnismál (stanza 35) sums up what all this means for the tree: the ash Yggdrasil suffers more hardship than men know; a hart bites it from above, it rots at the side, and Níðhöggr gnaws it from below. Snorri adds that the Norns take water and mud from the well every day and pour it over the ash, so that its branches do not wither or rot. Many readers see in this a world that is always under strain and always being kept alive.
Map of Yggdrasil
Snorri says the branches spread over the whole world and stand above heaven, and Hávamál, if its tree is Yggdrasil, says no one knows from what roots it runs. Yggdrasil has three roots, and at the tree the Gods and Goddesses hold their court every day. Grímnismál (stanzas 29 and 30) says the gods ride there each day to give judgement, while Thor wades the rivers Körmt and Örmt on foot.
That is what is known. Where the three roots go, the two main sources disagree.
In the Prose Edda, Snorri sets a well or spring under each root. He first lists one root among the Æsir, and a few lines later says a root stands in heaven, with the very holy well Urðarbrunnr beneath it. That is where the gods hold their court, and the Æsir ride there every day over the bridge Bifröst.
The second root is among the frost giants, where the void Ginnungagap once was. Under it lies Mímisbrunnr, the well of the wise Mímir, where Odin pledged an eye for a single drink; Völuspá (stanza 28) knows the story too. The third root stands over Niflheim, the cold world of mist, and under it is the spring Hvergelmir, where Níðhöggr gnaws the root from below.
The poem Grímnismál (stanza 31) gives a different picture and names no wells. The three roots run three ways: Hel lives under one, the frost giants under the second, and human beings under the third. Völuspá, for its part, sets the tree over the well of Urðr.
There is no map of Yggdrasil in the sources. None of them lists the Nine Worlds or says where each one lies on the tree. Modern scholars sometimes describe the Norse world along two axes: a vertical one, running from heaven down the tree to the dead below, and a horizontal one, with gods and humans in the middle and giants out at the edge, across the sea.
Popular diagrams like the one above combine the two by stacking the worlds on the tree, with Asgard in the crown, Midgard on the trunk and Hel among the roots. That picture is modern. Snorri's own world is mostly level: a round earth in a deep sea, the giants along the shore, Midgard inside a wall made from the giant Ymir's eyebrows, and Asgard in the middle of the world.
Yggdrasil's Story Recap
We often think we know everything, and in fact, we usually know very little. As the tip of the iceberg is visible, and the rest of it that is numerous times larger, is hidden underwater, so is our knowledge of the Norse universe. Excellent and essential things remain invisible and unknown, and we should try our best to discover them.
Sometimes it is necessary to scratch beneath the tip of that iceberg, and I promise you that you will find all kinds of wonders there waiting for you!
Yggdrasil, often called the Norse tree of life today, is one of the central images in Norse mythology. Most people know it from comics, movies or series, and those versions add a great deal. The medieval sources give us less, and it is stranger: an ash named after a gallows, gnawed from above and below, watered every day by the Norns, and still standing, shaking and groaning, when Ragnarök comes.
We hope you loved this story and learned something new by reading this article. If you have any comments regarding Yggdrasil or want to tell us what you liked the most about this story, you can let us know in the comments area below.
Yggdrasil, FAQ
What is Yggdrasil?
Yggdrasil is the world-tree of Norse mythology, a vast ash whose branches spread over the whole world and whose three roots reach to three wells. The gods hold their court at it every day. It is known from the Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, both written down in 13th-century Iceland.
Is Yggdrasil the Tree of Life?
"Tree of life" is a modern name for Yggdrasil, not one the Norse sources use. The name most likely means "Odin's steed", usually explained as the gallows-tree on which Odin hanged himself to win the runes.
What are the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil?
The list most modern books use is Asgard, Midgard, Jötunheim, Niflheim, Muspelheim, Vanaheim, Álfheim, Svartálfheim and Helheim. The poem Völuspá mentions nine worlds alongside the world-tree, but no medieval text names the nine or places them on Yggdrasil's branches and roots. That arrangement is modern.
What creatures live in Yggdrasil?
Snorri Sturluson says an eagle sits in its branches with a hawk, Veðrfölnir, between its eyes; the dragon Níðhöggr gnaws a root from below, with more serpents than any tongue can count; four harts bite its foliage; and the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down the trunk carrying spiteful words between the eagle and Níðhöggr.
What kind of tree is Yggdrasil?
An ash. Völuspá and Grímnismál call it askr, ash, and Grímnismál says it is the greatest of trees. Völuspá also says it stands ever green, which has led some modern scholars to suggest a yew, but the texts say ash.
Does Yggdrasil survive Ragnarök?
The sources never say it falls. Völuspá says it shakes and groans as Ragnarök begins. Two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, hide in Hoddmímir's wood and survive to people the new world; many scholars take that wood to be Yggdrasil, but no source says so.
Keep exploring: the Nine Realms, Asgard and the Bifröst bridge, or shop Yggdrasil & Tree of Life pendants.