- THE BEGINNING -

At the beginning there was this big nothing and it is much later that we put a name to this big nothing, its name is Ginnungagap - the great yawning chasm .
Ginnungagap had no length, no depth and no width, both calm and noisy, dark and lightless, no person could live here, or even stay there for a few minutes.

Besides this great inexplicable void, there were two extreme forces that lived on either side of this chasm. On one side was Muspelheim , which was filled with heat and fire and on the other Niflheim filled with cold and ice.
The fire giant Surt lived on Muspelheim , to kill time, Surt trained with his flaming sword by throwing flames on Ginnungagap . The fire caused the evaporation of the ice which gave birth to Ymir the ice giant and the giant cow Audhumla .

Much later, Odin and his brothers Vé and Vili killed Ymir , body, he creates Midgard , from his hair, they weave trees, from his skin, he makes earth, from his blood, they fill the lakes and oceans, from his bones they build the mountains and the sky is created from of his skull.

The creation of worlds rests on the great tree Yggdrasil . How was this tree created? This remains a mystery to us men. The only ones who know its history are the Norns who weave the destiny of all living beings. 

YGGDRASIL

The great roots and branches of Yggdrasil grow in these nine realms. Outside of the nine realms, Yggdrasil is also inhabited by several animals and mythical creatures. There are four deer (Dain, Duneyr, Durathror, Dvalin) running along its branches, feeding on its leaves. At the top of the tree lives a great eagle (Vidofnir) which looks down on the nine kingdoms. The roots are home to the great snake Nidhögg , this snake gnaws at the roots that lead to the Hvergelmir spring. Nidhögg and the Eagle on the Summit hate each other. A squirrel named Ratatosk jumps up and down to insult the two enemies.

“Ratatosk is the name of the squirrel,

Running along Yggdrasil,

He reports the insults of the eagle,

To the lowest root,

where Niddhög lives. »

Grimnismál - 32

The three enormous roots of Yggdrasil cross 3 realms and obtain their sources in 3 wells. One root goes to the well of Urdr , one root goes to the well of Mimir and the last one goes to Hvergelmir , where the domain of Nidhögg is located.

Discover our statuettes

One of the depictions of Yggdrasil is found on the Ockelbostenen runestone in Sweden, (see below) if you look at the design of this runestone you will notice a snake which makes up part of the runes on the stone. To the left of the tree you can also see an interesting creature which may be Freyr who is deteriorating with his magic sword. Sigurd the snake slayer is at the top, despite the deterioration of the work, we can clearly see that the sword pierces the snake.

Many runestones also feature designs that can be seen as branches and roots or even Yggdrasil:

THE NINE REAMS: