46 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



Perhaps we ought not to leave this fabled 

 tree without saying more about the Scandi- 

 navian version of it, Yggdrasil. It was an 

 ash. We have seen that, out of an ash, Odin 

 made the first man. So Yggdrasil was the 

 tree of existence, of life and of knowledge, of 

 sorrow and of fate. It was, indeed, the source 

 of all things, including time and space. It 

 was the upholder of the universe. Of its 

 three roots, one reached down into Niflheim, 

 to the well Hvergelmer, and was gnawed 

 there by the dragon Nidhug and his brood. 

 The second root reached down to Jotunheim, 

 to the well Mimer, where knowledge and 

 wisdom were hidden. The third root was in 

 Asgard, where the gods sat in judgment by 

 the sacred fountain of Urd, riding thither daily 

 over the Bifrost bridge, the rainbow. 



From the beautiful hall which was there, 

 came three maids, the Norns, who shaped 

 human destiny — Urd, who was the Past ; 

 Verdande, the Present; and Skuld, the Future. 

 They wove the web of human life, a golden 

 thread, stretching from the dawn to the sunset 

 of life. Urd and Verdande wove it, but Skuld 

 rent it every evening. Its branches enfolded 



