Norse mythology · Cosmos, sky and cycles
Yggdrasil
The ash that holds up the world: three roots, an eagle at the top, a dragon below.
What does it mean?
In the Eddic poems Yggdrasil is an ash, ever green and wet with white water, standing at the well of Urd; beneath it sit the three Norns of fate. It has three roots: one over Hel, the land of the dead, one over the frost giants and one over humankind. An eagle lives at its top and the dragon Nidhogg at its foot; the squirrel Ratatosk carries words between them, four harts nibble the highest branches, serpents gnaw the roots and the trunk rots [1]. Its likeness to the tree of life of Turkic mythology is striking.
Same theme
Sources
Drawing: Bitki Tabanı, interpreted from the traditional motif.