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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 



©IRe Ror/^e ©y/orPiL-ilTee. 



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 aethereal 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 wind-still 

 aether. A squirrel runs up and down the Ash, and seeks to cause 

 strife between the eagle and Nidhogg, a monster, which is con- 

 stantly 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 aethereal 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 men, 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 



