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Yggdrasil: Trees
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Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is a massive 'tree' of unknown origin. Whether it is actually a tree in the sense of an oak tree, or whether the mortal mind merely interprets it as a tree is unknown. Regardless of what it is, it is known that it is possibly the largest living thing in existence, spanning not only a world (its trunk supports the highest mountains--the Pillars of Heaven--on the Achaean world and its root system spreads through the world), but the Planes of Existence themselves. It is said, in fact, that its roots extend through all the Infernal planes, though this may be merely a rumour spread by those with an excess of imagination.
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The Yggdrasil is the "world tree" in Norse mythology. It is ... known as the "tree of knowledge," the "tree of the universe" and the "the tree of fate." There are several versions of the Norse legends concerning the tree and the Yggdrasil is represented in slightly different terms in each legend. But there is still a single image or theme that is consistant across the various legends. Within this context, the Yggdrasil makes a good symbol as well as a metaphor for the Journal of Paraphysics. In one way or another, it represents the opposing concepts of myth and knowledge, the known and unknown, mystery and reason as well as space and time.
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Yggdrasil means ‘the horse of the terrible one’, Odin. Since this god discovered the secret of runic wisdom by hanging himself on the cosmic ash—that is, sacrificing himself to himself—Yggdrasil must have been regarded as a tree of knowledge. Parallel with the Cross, the death of Odin has a separate ancestry, sacrificial trees have existed in northern Europe from earliest times. Christian missionaries like St Boniface (c.674–754) cut them down, to the terror and rage of the people: till he was himself cut down at Dockum near the Frisian coast.
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Yggdrasil ... represents renewal. While it's an evergreen, so the leaves don't drop off with the seasons (though a canny basher will add there's no seasons on most of the Outer Planes anyway!), the tree itself seems to go through cycles of growth and consolidation, where some colour pools wax or wane, new ones are formed, and older ones die. Some bloods reckon that the less-used portals eventually disappear, as if Yggdrasil only keeps them there as long as cutters stretch themselves to use them.
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In the novel, The Lost Kings, the Yggdrasil, while described as a tree that holds together the mortal world, is found in the realms of the underworld. The book relates this world tree to the apple tree found in the Garden of Eden, while mentioning that they are two separate trees, they are ... inescapable of each other.
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As the "tree of the universe" and the ":world tree," the Yggdrasil literally encompasses the whole of the earth and heavens. In the Norse creation legend, three God-brothers, Odin, Vili and Ve, killed the giant Ymir which represented chaos. From the body of Ymir, the universe was created. The God-brothers created the earth from Ymir's brow. The abode of mankind was known as Midgard, the center region of the Norse universe. A great tree, the Yggdrasil, grew out of Ymir's body and became the universe.
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