Yggdrasil is the immense World Tree at the center of Norse cosmology, binding together the Nine Realms in a single living structure. Described in the Poetic and Prose Eddas, it is most often identified as a great ash tree whose branches extend into the heavens while its roots reach into the underworld. Gods gather at its base, fate is woven beneath it by the Norns, and countless beings dwell within its trunk, bark, and roots. It is not merely a tree—it is the axis of existence itself.

At one root lies the well of wisdom, at another the realm of the dead, and at its crown perch watchful creatures. The serpent Níðhöggr gnaws at its roots while an eagle rests high above, with a squirrel carrying insults between them. Yggdrasil holds tension within its structure—life and decay, knowledge and erosion—reflecting a cosmos that is alive but not invulnerable.

Unlike later romanticized images of a serene “tree of life,” Yggdrasil exists in a world moving toward Ragnarök. It trembles during the final cataclysm yet endures beyond it. As a mythic symbol, it represents connection: between realms, between fate and action, between destruction and renewal. It is the spine of the Norse universe—organic, sacred, and under constant strain.