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OF TGGDBASILL. 117
CHAPTEE IX.
OF YGG0KASrLL.
All living IsTature is represented in the figure of
the Ash Yggdrasill. The name is uncertain, but
seems to be best explained by the term Yggs, as
Odin's horse, chariot, or seat.* The living world
veas regarded as moved and guided by the Divinity,
which had its seat therein, as the Spirit in the body.
The name in this sense fully coincides with the
spirit of the Old-Norse poetry : and the myth of
Yggdrasill appears to be throughout a poetic alle-
gory.
The World-tree grows up from three roots. The
one shoots from Hvergelmir, the primeval source of
matter in the Abyss ; the second from Jotunheim,
from the depths of the raw material forces of the
world ; the third from the celestial abodes of the
.^ir, from the source of the spiritual World-life.
The figure agrees with the theory of creation. In
the top of the tree sits an eagle, doubtless the sym-
* Tggr, one of Odiu's Barnes, signifies : the Terrible, Fear-
inspiring, or also the Meditative ; draaill or drosull, from draga, to
draw, to bear.
F. Magnusen also has ^, cogn. with Tir, moisture, rain ; whence
yg, ygg, was formed, henee it wonld signify the bearer of rain, or
the bearer of Odin.
6*