Door  20

Around Åsgård lies the world of human beings in a large circle, Midgård is the farm in the middle. This means that human life spreads between two major power groups, gods and giants (jotner).​ Illustration by professor Finnur Magnusson.

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Yggdrasil - the World Tree

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Yggdrasil is in Norse mythology the name of the World tree / Tree of Life, an ash that reaches over the sky and is spreading its branches all over the world. Yggdrasil is always green, and from it comes dew that is dripping down on Earth.

The ash is carried by three long roots. These go through three different worlds, and at each root lies a well. One root is in the Åsgård with the gods. Here lies the well Urdarbrunn (brunn=well), where the witches live, and where the gods keep tribunes everyday. The other root is at the giants. Here is Mimesbrunn, which is the source of sense and wisdom, and is owned by the wise Mime. The third root is in Nivlheim, and here lies the well Kvergjelme. In Kvergjelme lies a bunch of worms, lead by the dreadful Nidhogg, and gnaws at the roots. They threaten to destroy the whole tree.

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The mythical cosmology can not be read as a banal map of the world; the people of Viking were well-known with boats and the coastal road, and how to travel in all directions of the sky. Cosmology is a symbolic worldview that reveals how everything is connected on a deeper level. The Viking's worldview is quite sophisticated and shows the need for balance in life and in this world.