Mytho-Cosmology

This is the Norse world tree, Yggdrasill, an evergreen ash that governs the shape of the whole universe. The tree itself sprouts out of that little mountain (Asgard, where the gods get together, at the bottom of Valhalla), and the trunk is rooted by three stems in subterranean Hel. The curvilinear pathway beginning at the top of the mountain and ending at the tiny triumphal arch is Bifrost, the rainbow bridge that only heroes are permitted to use to reach Valhalla.

The first stem sprouts branches that radiate over the entire sky; the leaves are the clouds, and the fruits are the stars. The four cardinal winds are said to be stags, nibbling at stellar flower buds and dripping dew from their antlers to the earth. On the topmost branch perches the eagle (symbol of the air), and atop him perches the falcon, sentinel of the gods. The squirrel Batatosk scampers up and down the tree (symbol of precipitation) in an attempt to instigate a little tiff between the eagle and Nidhogger, the serpenty mess at the roots (symbol of vulcanic powers), always threatening the foundation.

The second stem emanates from the south in Muspellsheim where the three Norns live, and the third shoots up from Nifleheim in the north, dwelling place of the Mimir the frost-giant's fountain, from which all the knowledge of mankind flows.

This is a print from Jinn Manusen's Eddalaeren, 1824. I'm citing this nifty little book Folklore and Symolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees, put out by Dover Publications.