The Yggdrassil is an ash tree found in Norse mythology, an ash tree so huge, so big, the
best of trees, it extends far across the sky, and is often called the world tree, and it
binds the nine realms of the Norse world together.
This tree is the holy place of the gods, a place where each day they hold court.
What we know of it is that it has many roots, but three are particularly important, stretching
so far that many do not know where they go.
They stretch to the home of the gods of the Æsir, they stretch to wear the cosmos began,
at the Ginnungagap, and they stretch into the deepest part of the underworld, deeper
than Hel, into Niflheim.
On top of the tree sits an eagle, Veðrfölnir, who sees many things.
And a squirrel called Ratatosk runs up and down through the ash trees branches, and carries
malicious messages between the eagle and Níðhöggr, a serpent who lives amongst the roots of the
tree.
There are also four stags that walk the branches of the tree, feeding on its leaves.
And this makes the ash tree suffer, and it continues to suffer as the stags eat its leaves,
and the serpent, Níðhöggr, accompanied by a huge number of snakes, gnaws at its roots.
Eating away at the tree from the top and the bottom.
Hello, I’m Jon White, a scholar and researcher of Indo-European mythology and today I’m
going to take you on a journey to find the original name of the World Tree of Nordic
mythology, a tree which is often called the Yggdrasill, but which many academics think
may not be right as it probably has an older name that is much more in keeping with the
tree’s purpose.
And if you stay until the end of the video you’ll also discover old names used for
Odin and Loki.
So grab yourself a cup of tea, and welcome to Crecganford.
The Yggdrasill is the world tree of Norse mythology, and it is best described in the
Gylfaginning of the Prose Edda, but with some of these details mirrored within the Poetic
Edda’s Grímnismál.
And it was these details were used in the introduction to this talk.
And it is from this description that we know that this ash is a very important tree, a
place where the gods are often found.
But our quest today is to find out why we see it being called slightly different things,
most often “Yggdrasils askr“ or “The ash of Yggdrasils” as opposed to just “Yggdrasill”.
This difference may seem subtle from a spelling point of view, but the meanings of the two
presentations of the tree’s name are quite different, and hints at the tree not actually
being called the Yggdrasill.
Now to say this topic and the meaning of Yggdrasill has been discussed extensively by scholars
over many years is an understatement, and it would take me a week to relay all their
thoughts here.
But the bottom line is that we have few facts about the tree’s original name, a large
pile of conjecture, and no easy way to assess the probability of that conjecture.
But I shall look at some of these ideas that either feel to me that they have significant
credibility, or offer some additional insight into Nordic mythology, and as such it will
allow us to uncover less well-known facts and beliefs about our North Western European
ancestors.
So let’s begin with the problems the name Yggdrasill gives to us, what does it mean?
Well let’s split the word Yggdrasill into its two component parts, Ygg and Drasill.
The Ygg part is the less contentious of the two, and most academics agree it means terrifier,
awe, or fear, but in reality it is actually a mutation of “uggr”, meaning Awer, which
is one of Óðinn’s many names.
And so in effect Ygg probably means Óðinn, and there aren’t many scholars which dispute
that.
And if we couple that with the Old Norse poetic word Drasill which means horse, we see the
literal meaning of Yggdrasill as being Odin’s horse, and so in effect it could be referring
to Sleipnir.
And that is how most people understand it.
However, things are not that simple, because what is the etymology of Drasill?
Where did it come from?
And this is where the problems start because it has many potential etymologies.
To save going through them all I will say that the northern European etymologies are
most fitting in terms of meaning and geographic relativity to the Old Norse language, and
so I shall concentrate on a few of those.
First, in Old Icelandic the word drasill come from either “drasinn” meaning slow, lazy,
or blunt, or “drasla” meaning slowly.
Which doesn’t seem like a good fit for Odin’s eight-legged steed Sleipnir which you would
assume to be anything other than slow, and so this name probably originated not in Iceland
but in mainland Europe.
In the Germanic languages Drasill has also been connected with “þrasa” which can
mean ready to fight, and within latin the prefix “þras” is associated with many
chiefly names including Óðinn.
But then this would suggest Yggdrasill means Odin’s Odin, which again doesn’t sit well
with what we expect.
But there is the Danish gloss, or definition of “drasill”, which is seen to mean “being
an untamed creature able to overcome great hardships”.
And this seems to tie in with the current Old Norse meaning of horse, especially if
this is Odin’s horse.
And so, on that basis the origin of Yggdrasill could have stemmed from Denmark to still mean
Óðinn’s Horse, but the horse has evolved from this word of an untamed creature, which
sits well for the backstory of Sleipnir.
But then when used in poetry, Yggdrasill is also metaphor for “gallows”.
And we see an example of this in the poem of Havamal stanza 138 when it talks about
Odin hanging.
It is written hecc vindga meiði á which literally means 'hung on a windblown beam'
referring to a gallow, although the word beam is often translated as tree.
But I will talk more about that in a future video where I will translate stanzas 138 and
139 of the Havamal in detail so you can understand how it can be so easily misunderstood.
So make sure you subscribe to the channel if you like learning about Indo-European mythology,
and click the like button too, it’s free and helps these videos get seen by more people.
As for this translation, what we can is what is probably reasonably common knowledge for
those that have an interest in Old Norse culture, and that is that the Yggdrasill could mean
Odin’s Horse, and is a metaphor for Gallows.
However, it has also been proposed that it could also mean Tree of Terror if the Ygg
is kept as its literal meaning in Old Norse rather than Odin’s name, but this reasoning
hasn’t had much traction.
But this is only the start of our understanding of the word, as there is a secret history
behind it, lost through time as poems evolve.
Something we refer to as poetic simplification.
You see the Yggdrasill, which, as we mentioned earlier, is also known as “Askr Yggdrasils”,
and we see this in both the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, Askr Yggdrasils can be translated
as “the ash tree of Awer’s horse” or “the ash tree of the horse of Ygg” or
“The ash tree of Odin’s Horse”.
But however we translate this phrase, it is always and must be referring to two objects,
an Ash tree, and Óðinn’s horse.
And this then raises a question, why is the Yggdrasill known as Askr Yggdrasils here?
And to answer this we have to look more closely at some Norse mythology, and ask ourselves
what is so important about the Ash tree?
And the answer to this is that the ash tree is important because man was created from
an Ash tree, as described in stanza 17 and 18 of the Voluspa of the Poetic Edda, which
reads; Until three gods, kind and strong, Gathered from the Æsir; they found on land
with little power, an Ash and an Embla, their fate not written.
They did not move, they were neither man nor woman, they had no voice; Odin gave them movement,
Hœnir gave them genitals, Loður gave them a voice.
And there is also some evidence that points to Óðinn having been born from a tree, similar
to the trémenn mentioned in verse 49 of the Hávamál, which reads: In a field I gave
my clothes To two wooden men They considered themselves respectable when they had clothing;
The naked man is shunned.
And so what does this all mean, well it could mean that “askr Yggdrasils” is a kenning,
which is a phrase used in Old Norse poetry to describe something using metaphor or simile,
and so where we see Askr, or Ash Tree, it could referring to man, and so Askr Yggdrasill
would mean “The man of Yggdrasill” or the “man of Óðinn’s horse”, meaning
that “askr Yggdrasils” could mean Óðinn himself.
Now the reason this type of wording happens in Old Norse poetry is because it is focused
on alliteration, and sometimes the straightforward, regular words do not provide the opportunity
for alliteration, and so kennings are used to help.
Now this idea about “askr Yggdrasils” being a kenning for Odin is supported Anatoly
Liberman, amongst other scholars.
His view being that this was once used but then forgotten over time and Askr Yggdrasill
was then associated with the tree rather than Óðinn.
And whilst we cannot say this is what definitely happened, it is probably one of the most plausible
ideas, especially with regards to poetic practice in Old Norse.
And we can see this happening when we look at the Voluspa, and the 19th stanza, we see
that Yggdrasill is meant as a synonym for Askr Yggdrasils “An ash I know, Yggdrasil
its name.”
And it seems that over time Askr is dropped and “Yggdrasils” kept, being known as
“Yggdrasill”.
Now some of you may think we’re stretching the realms of possibilities here, but this
is something we see in stories many times, and not just in Old Norse, but here I’ll
give you another example, and one that may really surprise you about Loki, the Trickster
god of the Vikings.
And something I brought up in my last video.
The wolf-offspring of Loki is known today as Fenrir, the name we associate with the
most terrifying of monsters at Ragnarök, that giant wolf.
However, the name of the wolf is also referred to as “Fenris-úlfr” so Fenrir’s wolf.
And you may think that is rather confusing, how can Fenrir, also be called Fenrir’s
wolf?
Well Loki has had other names, and one of these referred to him as an underground cave-dweller
in effect the fen-dweller, or “Fenrir” in Old Norse.
Yes, Loki used to be called Fenrir.
And he also lived in the eastern iron wood, where he fathered with his ancient Hag “Fenrir’s
brood”, consisting of wolves and other monsters.
And so we see that over time the poetic terms such as Fenrir’s wolf or Fenrir’s brood
referring to Loki’s wolf and offspring, be affected by the same poetic simplification,
and just as Askr Yggrasils turns into Yggdrasill, then Fenrir’s wolf and Fenrir’s brood
get called Fenrir, and as time passes so the link with Loki’s name get forgotten, and
the wolf takes on Loki’s name, and so as Odin’s name gets forgotten from the kenning
Askr Yggdrasils so the tree takes on the name Yggdrasill.
In effect, poetic simplification coupled with the evolution of the poetry though oral transmission
over time, evolved the name of the world tree into its simplified form of Yggdrasill.
But this leaves one important question, what was the original name of the world tree?
Well a few poems exist in the Poetic Edda which give us clues, and which talk of a significant
tree using different names.
You have “Hoddmímis holt” from the Vafþrúðnismál, ”Læraðr” from the Grímnismál, or ”Mímameiðr”
from Svipdagsmál.
And these names are interesting as they have something in common.
”Læraðr” can mean learning, and is associated with knowledge.
And “Hoddmímis holt” and ”Mímameiðr” both seeming linked to Mimir, and this name
similarity may have something to do with being in the same location, but equally Mimir, a
god renowned for his wisdom and knowledge, could have his name being applied to the tree
to suggests its features.
And so this could mean that the tree we know today as the Yggdrasill was formerly known
as either the Tree of Prophecy or the Tree of Knowledge.
Names that would associate the tree with Odin and his quests for knowledge, but it could
also tie in very well with either the fact that the Norns, the three deities who shaped
human destinies carved their prophecies onto the world tree, but the Tree of Knowledge
could be a reference to mythology about how people gained knowledge, the most well-known
example of this is with Adam and Eve, but we see in Norse mythology Líf and Lífþrasir
emerging from the tree post Ragnarök, as the two people to start life again, in effect
the rebirth of Askr and Embla, the original trees that Odin made in to humans.
But whether the Yggdrasill is linked to the Tree of Knowledge is a mystery I don’t yet
have an answer for.
But the speculation is necessary to allow people to discuss it, but to me there is a
lot going for this possibility.
If you missed my last video about Odin hanging from the Yggdrasill, it definitely worth a
watch, and you can see it if you click here.
And until the next time, please stay safe and well, and this was Crecganford.