RELIGIOUS TREES 165 



thority. Among the fruits the apple is the favour- 

 ite of the classic writers. Aphrodite holds it in her 

 hand and Ulysses longs for it in the Garden of 

 Alcinous. 



It was with our European ancestors that tree 

 veneration reached its highest expression. The 

 Scandinavians believed that the destinies of the 

 earth lay with their tree of the universe Yggdra- 

 sill. A whole mythology explained how certain 

 actions of the birds and animals which dwelt in and 

 around it affected affairs in the world of men. 

 Yggdrasill was an ash, as was the progenitor of 

 the first men. It is related that the god Odin and 

 his brothers, while walking by the sea, came upon 

 two striking trees. In some sort of creative im- 

 pulse, Odin changed them into a man and a woman. 

 The ash (ask) became the man and the elm (em- 

 bla) the woman. This suggests why tree and an- 

 cestor worship are sometimes blended. 



Next to the ash, the oak was the most sacred of 

 northern trees. It was recognised as king of 

 the trees and the representative of supernatural 

 strength and power. Laws of the early Saxons pro- 

 tected it from injury. Because so often struck by 

 lightning, it was believed to be the special tree of 

 Thor, the thunder god. The ancient Britons also 

 held the oak and the mistletoe which grew on it in 



