Episode 3 - Of Yggdrasill and the Cosmos

Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide

The universe according to Norse mythology is organized around a giant ash tree called Yggdrasill. But did you know that the motif of worshiping a giant, cosmically-central tree shows up in 8th-century Christian literature from England? And did you know the word "Yggdrasill" might be a reference to a story about Odin learning the runes by means of hanging himself? This episode doesn't cover everything the myths say about the famous World Tree, but it does dive into the importance of the great, cosmic ash to the ancient Norse and other pagan, Germanic societies.

Sources:

• “Cosmology” by Mathias Nordvig in “Pre-Christian Religions of the North” Volume III, 2020
• “Dictionary of Northern Mythology”, by Rudolf Simek, 2010
• “Dream of the Rood”, transl. by Richard Hamer, 1970
• “Evergreen Ash: Ecology and Catastrophe in Old Norse Myth and Literature”, by Christopher Abram, 2019
• “Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs” by John Lindow, 2001
• “Sacred Tree and Holy Grove” by Joseph S. Hopkins at mimisbrunr.info, 2020
• “The Forest in Old High German Literature” by Michael J. Swisher in “Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik”, 1988
• “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
• “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995

Contact:

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Music:

Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com). Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/