name and origin of yggdrasill

8/2/2019 Name and Origin of Yggdrasill

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The Origin and Meaning of the Name YggdrasillAuthor(s): Sivert N. HagenReviewed work(s):Source: Modern Philology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun., 1903), pp. 57-69Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/432424 .

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THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAMEYGGDRASILL.IN his Studier over de nordiske Gude- og Heltesagns Oprin-delse,' Christiania, 1881-89, pp. 291-528, Professor SophusBugge has examined in detail the twocloselyrelatedmyths on-cerning"Odin on the gallows" (Hfvam6l 138, 139) and the ashYggdrasill. He has shown that both mythsmust have origi-nated frommedieval legendA oncerning he crucifixionfChristand the Christiancross,and he has, as I shall tryto corroboratein this paper, correctly dentifiedthe most importantmaterialupon whichthemythof the world-tree ggdrasill is based. ButI believe it can be shownthat an important ink in the chain ofevidence is still to be supplied; for, s I believe,the etymologyand meaningof thename Yggdrasill have not as yetbeen satis-factorily xplained. In the present paper I shall try to showthatthename is itselfdirect,not indirect, videnceof theforeignorigin of the myth, nd that it is not derived from hemythof"Odin on the gallows."The mythof the tree Yggdrasill is known to us from theElder and the Younger Edda. In Volusp6 19 the tree is thusdescribed:2

Anash I know,tiscalledYggdrasill,Thehightree,prinkled ithwhitewater;Thencecome hedewsthatfall n thevalleys,Forever reentstands 'er thefountainf Urd."Compare also Grimnesmpl 1:1GermantranslationbyBRENNER: StudienUber die EntatehungdernordischenGOtter-und Heldensagen, Mtinchen, 889.2See GOLTHER,Germ.Mythologie, eipzig, 1895, p. 527ff.3For the reader's convenience I give theO. N. original forthe translated stanzas. Thetext is Sijmons's, which has notbeen followed literally:

Askveitk tanda, heiterYggdrasels,h6rbabmrausenn hvita aure;PaP an koma dgggvar Dcrs dala falla,stendr& ofgro'nnUrbarbrunne.57] 1


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2 SIVERT N. HAGENThreeroots un nthree irectionsUnder heashYggdrasill;Under hefirst wellsHel,under he second hefrost iants,Under hethird hefolk fman.'

Also in Fjplsvinsmpl13 and 14 the tree is thus described:Svipdagr aid:Tell methat, j91svi6r, hich will askyouAnd do desire oknow:Howis named hetreewhich preads broadIts limbs ver ll landsFj9lsvibr nswered:Mimi's ree tiscalled; nooneknowsFromwhatrootstsprings;It shallfall for hat,which ewest elieve:Fire willnotfell t,nor ron.2Otherfeaturesof themythfrom he Elder Edda maybe gath-ered up in a briefparagraph. Mimi's fountain s at the foot ofthe tree,whencethe name "Mimi's tree." In its branches it an

eagle and a hawk,and up and down the tree runs a squirrelcalled Ratatoskr. Four hartsrun about in the branchesand eatofthe leaves. Below a dragon,Niphgggr,and otherwormsgnawon the roots. For otherfeatures he readermust be referred othemanuals and to the poems themselves.In Snorre's Edda (chapter15) the pictureof theworld-treesin its main outlines as follows: The ash Yggdrasill is thegreat-est and best of all trees. Its branchesspread out over thewholeworld, and its crown reaches heaven. It has three roots: thefirst f these reaches men (MS. has "the gods," but see Golther,p. 529); thesecond,thegiants; thethird,Hell. Undereach root s

1Driar r'tr standa d4 ria vegaund aske Yggdrasels:Hel b'r und einne,annare hrimbursar,bri-bjomenskermenn.2Svipdagr kvaI: Seg[jbu] mir bat,FjglsviJbr,s ek bikfregna monok ekvilja vita:hvat [,bat]barrheiter, s breikaskoflond o11 imar?FjglsviIr kvaF: Mimameibr [hann heiter],en bat mange veithvershann af rdtum innvP Pbathann fellr,esfestan varer:fellerhann eldrnd drn.58


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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YGGDRASILL 3a fountain,Urd's, Mimi's, and the fountainHvergelmir, espect-ively. The tree stands in the middle of the earth.So much for the conception, nd now for a considerationofthe name and of its relation to themythof the hanging ofOdin,which in H6vam6l 138 and 139 is as follows:I know hat hungonthewindy reeNinenights hroughout,Wounded yspear, acrificedoOdin,Myself omyself,[Onthemightyree, fwhichmendo notknow

Fromwhatrootst springs].Theyoffered enodrink orbread;Belowmy yes cast,I raisedup therunes,weeping raised hem:Back thence fell.'According to Bugge's interpretationfthe name Yggdrasill,the above myth s the cause for ts existence: Yggdrasill is com-posed of twowords,namely,Yggr, "The TerribleOne," a name

of Odin, and drasill, "horse, steed," a word which has no exist-ence outsideof Skaldic poetry. Yggdrasill mustthereforemean"Ygg's horse," "Odin's steed," and itmustbe a kenningor meta-phoremployed bytheSkalds for hegallowsuponwhich Odin washung,for horse" is a commonmetaphor nEnglish,German, ndScandinavian for "gallows." Even Christ's cross is in a M. E.poemof thefourteenthentury escribed s "IJesuspalfraye;" andin anotherpoem (Morris,Legends of theHoly Rood, E. E. T. S.46, p. 148) it is said ofJesus that he rode "on stokky tede."The interpretationf Yggdrasill as "Ygg's, Odin's horse" iswidelyaccepted by scholars.2 Both Kaufmann3 nd Mogk,' who

1Veitkat ekhekkvindga meibedn&trallar nio,geireundabr Okgefenn6Pne,sjalfr sjolfumm.r,[d eimmeibe,esmangeveithvershann af rdtom inn].Vibhleifemiksoddo na vibhornege;njista eknizr:namkupp rdinar,J4pande amk;-fell ek aptribaan.2As KAUFMANN, eitr., Vol. XV, p. 204,has noticed, this interpretationhad alreadybeen givenbyUHLAND,Schriften,Vol. VI, p. 361.3" Odin am Galgen," Beitr.,Vol. XV, p. 204. PAUL'S Grundriss2, ol. III, p. 335.59


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4 SIVERT N. HAGENare strongly opposed to Bugge and his school, also give theirapprovalto this interpretation.There are twoseriousobjections against this viewof the nameand they maybe stated as follows:1. If Yggdrasill means " Ygg's horse,"then t is not n agree-ment n formwithotherkennings f thiskind, uchas Mimameidr,wherethegenitiveform flMimi is employed; cf. "Signy's hus-band's cold horse" (svalan hest Sign jar vers'), and otherken-nings nwhichOdin's name Yggr is found: Yggs at = "proelium,"Yggjar vedr= "pugna," Yggjar bdl= "gladius," and Yggjareldr= "gladius." " In each of thesecases of Skaldic metaphorswe find the genitive case of Yggr, never Ygg-, which isexplainedby Bugge as the form used in composition. He citesa parallel examplein theNorw.dial. nameforDaphne Mezereum:tyvid 0. Swed. tivedh) and tysvid 0. N. *tyvicrand *thsvikr)stand side by side; but it seems to me to be questionablewhether his is a reliable example. An original O. N. *t'svidr(the god Tyr's wood) may have suffered he loss of its -s-because the genitive form in composition with -vicdr seemedanomalous by the side of the numerous regular compounds inwhich -vidtr, vid was the second element: cf. eldvid, furuvid,torvid,etc.,etc.; in Tuesday, Tirsdag, the -s- remains, nd thereis, so faras I am aware,no by-formwithout t. Detter3stronglyurges this objection and holds that Yggdrasill can only mean"Schreckenspferd,"or "Schreckpferd," " SchrecklichesPferd;"cf.yggja " metuere bytheside ofugga, yggligr,ygglaustbytheside of uggligr,ugglaust.' Heinzel5 also has rejected the usualinterpretation. In a review of E. H. Meyer's V6luspa he says:"Ebenso istes unrichtig, ass Yggdrasell denhengstOdhins 'mithochskaldischem amen'bezeichne. Als kenningkannYggdrasellnur'galgen' heissen,nicht,galgenOdhins,'oder'hengstOdhins.'"There is, so far as I can see, no reasonwhy Yggdrasill should beconsideredequivalentto Yggs (Yggjar) drasill, Yggsdrasill.

1Ynglingasaga, ed. J6NSSON. . 36.2For these and others see WIs:gN,Carmina Norroena,GI. p. 339.3Ark.f. nord.Filologi, Vol. XIII, pp. 99 and 207.4Also KAHLE, F. Vol. XIV, p. 180, ccepts the view ofDetter.5Anrz.f.d. Altertum,Vol. XVI, p. 345. 60


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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YGGDRASILL 52. The second objectionis concerned with the etymology nd

meaning of the word drasill. In Skaldic poetry t is used for"horse, steed," and Bugge supposesthat it must originallyhavebeen the name of a certain horse in some heroic legend. Thesubstitution f a specificname for a general one is common nSkaldic poetry: " Sleipnerofflax-ropes" horva Sleipnir) means"horse offlax-ropes,". e. "the gallows;"' anyhorsemaybe called" Grani's bride,"Grani being the name of a certainhorse. Thiskind ofkenningcan not be old, for t indicates a developmentnpoetics exclusivelySkaldic, and Yggdrasill can not forthe samereason be a popular name drawn frompopular belief: it musthave originatedfarout in the Viking age.2 As to the etymologyof theword drasill Bugge3 suggests that it may "perhaps"(maaske) be connected with the verb brasa, "to behave in athreateningmanner in order to driveanother way" (Lok. 58),cognatewith Latin terrere; if drasill comes from rasa thenbmusthave become d by Verner's law (*drasild -). It is signifi-cant that Bugge further dds: "I do not believe thatDrasillis related to Goth. ga-dars, ' I dare,'" and that he makes men-tion (although with disapproval) of John Olafsen's conjecture(Nordens gamle Digtekonst,p. 83) thatdrasill is borrowedfromLatin dorsuale. It is clear that no satisfactory xplanation ofdrasill has yet been found. There is no other evidence fortheexistence of a doublet fras- : dras-, and there is nothingtoshowthatdrasill reallymeant"terrifier." Since the meaningofthe word has not been known it has been impossible to saywhether t is a naturalor a far-fetched eiti for a certain horse,or whether t is a natural or far-fetchedkenningfor "horse " ingeneral. It has not been proved that drasill is indisputablyGermanic word, although its ending -ill apparently conformsto the Norse suffixill (Germanic -ila-).The above objectionsagainst the prevailing view concerningthe nature and meaning of the compound Yggdrasill are, itseems to me,weightyenough to render it doubtfulwhetherthetrue solutionofthe problemhas been found. Nor does themore

1Studier,p. 396; Ynglingasaga, ed. J6NssoN,p. 44.2Studier, p. 398. 3 bid., p. 395,footnote.61


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6 SIVERT N. HAGENliteral interpretation f Heinzel, Detter, and Kahle sufficientlyexplainthe point,for t leaves out of consideration he etymologyand original meaningof the worddrasill, and these are,as I shalltryto show,ofthegreatest mportance.In order to explain the name Yggdrasill it will be necessaryto turn o an importantmediEeval hristian ourcefor the Yggdra-sill conception. This has been pointed out by Bugge in hisStudier,p. 449 ff. This source is represented y a Latin legend'of the thirteenth entury oncerning the origin of the cross, nwhich it is said that it is really identical with the tree ofknowledge. In this legendthere s an episode describingSeth'sjourneyto Paradise for the oil ofmercy. As I have not seen theLatin text, have, in the followingsummary,followed that ofBugge. Adam requests his son Seth to go to Paradise fortheoil ofmercy,forhe is about to die. By the angel who guardsthe treeof life he is permitted o put his head withinthe gate.Among otherthingshe sees in themiddleof Paradise theclearestfountain, romwhich run the fourrivers Phison,Gihon,Tigris,and Euphrates,whichsupplythewhole earth with water. Overthe fountain he sees a large tree withmanybranches,but with-out leaves and bark. He concludes that it is bare on account ofhis parents'sin. Again Seth looks in; he sees a snake clingingto the tree. He looks in a thirdtime and discovers that the treehas grownup to heaven,and in its tophe sees a weepingchild inswaddlingclothes. He also notices that the root of the treereachesdown to hell,where he recognizesthe soul of his brotherAbel. The angel tells himthat the child is the son of God andthe oil ofmercywhich had been promised to Adam whenhe wasdrivenfromParadise.This legend is of the thirteenthentury, ut t is reasonable toassume that trepresents lder egendsof similarcharacter. Manyof its featuresBugge points out in other earlier sources. Thebareness of thetree,as it is without bark and leaves, is a featurewhich correspondsto a conception of the tree of knowledge asrepresentedon several early Gallic-Christiangrave-monuments,

1Latin text in W. MEYER,Die Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus,Mftnchen,881(Abhandl. d. k. bayer.Akad. d. Wiss.). 62


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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YGGDRASILL 7wheretwo trees stand over against each other,the one coveredwith leaves, the otherdryand almost without eaves;' no doubtthey represent he tree of life and the tree of knowledge,respec-tively.This Latin legend of the originof the cross is respresentednseveral European languages, and it was widely distributed inEngland.2 A M.E. version of the story s printed by Morris inhis Legends of theHoly Rood (E. E. T. S. 46), London, 1871, pp.18 and 19 if., n twocloselyrelated texts. The firstMS is of thethirteenthentury nd bears the titlebe Holy Rode; the secondis of the fourteenthentury nd has a moredefinite itle,namely,Hou fe holycros was yfounde. I shall use the former ext inthe following ine-for-line ranslation and paraphrase of signifi-cant portions:Theholyrood, hesweet ree,t s right o have nmind,Thathas fromtrong eathbroughto ife ll mankind;Through treewe first ere ost, nd firstroughtoground,Andthroughtree fterwardsroughto ife:praised ethathour!All itcamefromneroot, hatbrought s to deathAndthatbrought s to life gain,through esus hatusbought.Fromtheapple-treehat urfirstatherook hevile pple,In thewaythat shalltellyou, hesweet ood ame.-ll. 1-8.Then followsthe Seth episode substantially s told above on thebasis of the Latin original. Seth looks in throughthegate ofParadise, andAmid heplace thatwas so fairhesawa fairwellFromwhich all waters hat are on earthcome, s the bookdothtell;Over hewellstood tree,with oughsbroad ndbare,But itboreneithereafnorbark, s if twere ery ged,Anadderhadclipped tabout, ll nakedwithoutkin:Thatwas thetree nd the dder,whichmadeAdamfirst o sin.Againhe looked nat thegate; itseemed o himhesaw thetreeFairlycoveredwitheaves ndgrown p toheaven nhigh;A young hildhe sawup in the ree,n smallclotheswound;

Theroot f thetree,t seemedtohim, eached hroughouthebottom fhell.The angeldrovehimfromhegate, tc.-ll. 71-82.I tudier,p. 459. 2Ibid., p. 449.63


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8 SIVERT N. HAGENThe angel now explainsthemeaningof the oil of mercy, nd thepoem thus continues:Theangelturned othat ree, n appletherefrometook,AndgaveSeth thereofhree eeds,whenhecametohim,Andbadehim aythese eeds underhis father'songue,Andburyhimwhenhe wasdead, nd lookwhat hereofprung.-11. 87-90.The rest of the poem is concerned withthe history f the threewands which spring up from Adam's grave, and which finallybecome one tree. Moses, David, Solomon, and the Queen ofSheba are brought into connection with it, and when Jesus isabout to be crucified heJews find t and make it into the cross.In the legend the barkless and leafless tree of knowledgebecomes in the next moment he tree of lifeand, in the courseoftime,the Christiancross. The Christiancross is a world-treenthatit bore on itself the sins of the world throughChrist's deathfor the whole world. Numerous early Christian authors foundtracesof the cross everywheren nature.' When birdsspreadouttheirwingstheirform s that of a cross. The firstman and womanwerecreatedin the formof a cross. Even the world is in theformof the cross.So also the Norse ash-treeYggdrasill is a symbolof theworld.The myth s a fineexampleof that poetic processthroughwhichforeign nd strange elements have been almost perfectly ssimi-lated and recreated. The poetshave made it so muchtheirownthatforcenturiesmen have believed it to be an independent ndoriginalcreationoftheGermanic or Norse imagination.The second elementof the name Yggdrasill is, in myopinion,partlyderivedfrom he Latin adjective rdsilis, "polished,smooth,bare." In Pliny,Nat. Hist., 17, 23 (35), an old vine is describedas rdsilis, "deprivedof bark" (draconem . . . . palmitem .rasilem),and inPrud.,a--ref. , 69, is found copuli rasiles, "smoothrocks,"that s,"deprivedofherbage,bare" (cf.Andrews, at. Diet.,for both references). The epithetrdsilis musthave been used inthe Latin legendorpoemfromwhichsomeNorsemanborrowed heconceptionof a world-tree. It correspondswith exactnessto the

1See MORRIS, Legends oftheHoly Rood, p. xxx (The Analogyofthe Cross in Nature).64


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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YGGDRASILL 9descriptionof the treeof knowledge in the Latin legend sum-marized by Bugge and in the M. E. poem fromwhichpassageshave been translated bove:

Ouerke welle stod a tre,withbowesbrodeand lereAc it ne bar noper lefne rynde,as it uorolded were.--11. 3 f.The tree wasbare,barkless, nd leafless, hat s, it was-to describeit by means of a Latin adjective-rdsilis.'But in orderto account forthe initial d in drasill we mustnowconsiderthe first lementofthe name. This mustoriginallyhave been yggt, he neuterformof the adjectivewhich s used asa proper name in Yggr, "The Terrible One." The formyggtoccurs once in the Elder Edda, namely n Atlampl 1, 6:

yggtvas deimsidanok et sama sonom Gjuka,es voro sannrddner.2"Terribletwas for hemater, nd the ame namely ggt) or hesonsofGjukiwhowere rievouslyetrayed."It was long supposed that the MS had ygr,with an r substi-tuted for a partially erased t,but Wimmer and J6nsson3have

1Since the above was in type I have been able to consult MEYER'S monograph,Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus (Abhandl. d. c. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss.,Vol. XVI,2, pp. 101-66),which contains the text of the Latin legend on the historyof theChristiancross. To an editorof this JOURNAL had already expressed the opinion that the wordrasilis was probably not used in this particular version,for if it had been used here, itssimilarity to the second element of Yggdrasill would no doubt have been noticed byBugge who has studied the legend in connection with the Yggdrasill myth. I here give afew lines fromthat part of the legendwhich concerns the present matter,a few variantreadings beinggivenin the parentheses: (p. 135) super ipsumuerofontemquaedam (magnaV) arbor stabat nimis ramosa, sedfoliis et corticenudata. meditariipse cepit,quare arborilla ita nudata esset .... cepit meditari arborem illam esse nudatam propter peccataeorundem .... intuitus est serpentem magnum V) circa arboremn udatam inuolutatum. . (p. 136) vidit arborem Jam dictam usque ad celos eleuatam .... vidit radicem(draconem A) eiusdem arboris terrampenetrantemusque in infernumpertingere....(p. 137)dedit ei angelus tria grana pomi (arboris add. V) illius de quo (qua V) manducaueratpater eius .... With palmes rasilis, scopuli rasiles, cited above, compare also nudumnemus, loca nuda gignentium,nudata cacumina silvae (Andrews); hence it is correct toassume the equation nudus, nudatus = rasilis.Another note may here be added. For the connection of the cross with the tree ofknowledge,cf. GERVASIUSVONTILBURY, Otia Imperalia (1212): Sed et alii dicunt,Adamde Paradiso tulissepomumvel surculumligni vetiti, x cuius semente uit crux; and, furtheron, Traditio Graecorumhabet,quod de arbore illa, in cuius fructu peccauit Adam, ramusfuit translatus in Jerusalem,qui in tantam excreuit arborem,quod de illo facta est cruxdomini (Meyer, p. 118).2Cf.J6NSSON, ddalieder, Vol. II, p. 82. In his text J6nssonhas the emendation uggrinstead of yggtas above (MS ygt),presumablybecause he was then under the impressionthat the MS had ygr. So BUGGE,Nor. Fornkv., p. 292,who printsyggr n his text.3HaandskriftetNo. 2365, tc. (Codex Regius), Kjobenhavn, 1891, . 81,1.11,and p. 182.65


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10 SIVERT N. HAGENdecided that r has been erased and t substituted. In his neweditionof the Heldenlieder (1902) Sijmons has adopted the formyggt,'which will presumablybe allowed to standhereafter s thecorrectreading. The original name of the tree was therefore*yggtrasilis, *yggtrasilis,which,however, ouldonlybe spokenas*ygg-trasilis, ince thetmustnecessarily angeitselfphoneticallywith the scond syllable. A -t- in such a position, and thusbeyondetymologicalcontrol as the sign of the neutergenderofyggr),could easily and naturallybetween the long voiced stopggand the sonorous r become voiced to a -d-. This process was nodoubt favoredby the fact that the second elementwas not under-stood and could not be keptfree from he t (d). I have markedthe voweld in rasilis as long,but it is by no means certain thatthe Norseman who firstcreated the name *yggtrasilis so pro-nounced it, but if he actually did so, nothingwould be morenaturalthana shorteningundera secondaryaccent. Syncope ofthe last i must also be assumed as an early stage in the historyof the name; thus, *yggt rasilis >*yggtrasilis >*yggdrasilis>yggdrasils; it is of course immaterialwhether he syncopeof iis lateror earlier than the change oft to d.Having identified hetwoelements f thename it nowremainsto explain why yggtwas coupled with rasilis, a native with aLatin word. We mustagain refer o thevisionof Seth in Para-dise. The tree whichSeth saw was in realityan apple-tree, ndit was from his treethatAdam tookthevile apple:

OfPeappeltreJatouruerste ader en uper ppelnom,InPe manere at ichulleyou telle,pe swete odecom.-11.7 f.I cannot believe thatthe conceptionof thetree of knowledgeas an apple-treeoccurshere for the first ime. It is such a natu-ral inferencefrom he storyof the fall of Adam and Eve that tmaybe supposed to be much older than the thirteenthcentury.1See also GERING,Glossar z. d. Lied. d. Edda, 2. Aufl., 1896,p. 202. He is uncertainwhetherto assume a form

y/gtr yggt, eut. ofy'gr r yggr.

2The later MS (Vernon),MORRIS,p. 19,has treo; so also the Harl. MS 2277. Also in theO.N. versionofthe same legend (Heilagra Manna Sagur,ed. UNGER,Chra., 1877, ol. I, p. 299)the tree is called an appletree: Enn ifirkelldunnisd hann apalldr einnstanda me5mprgunmgreinumokPd barklausan .... Ennp d erhann veik aptr,Pd sd hannfyrrnefndan palldrupvaxinn til himna,etc. But apalldr is sometimesused for" tree" in general as well as for" apple-tree." 66


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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YGGDRASILL 11I thereforemake the surelynot unreasonable conjecturethatthelegend or poemfromwhicha Norseman borrowedhis conceptionof the world-treedescribed the tree of knowledge as a mdlusrdsilis,"a bare, leafless, nd barklessapple-tree,"as in the M. E.version cited above. The Norsemanwho was confronted y thisexpressionprobablydid notunderstandrdsilis at all, but he mayhave thoughtthat he understoodmdlus,which he identifiedwiththe Latin adjective malus,' an epithetfitting nough as long asthe tree s considered as the tree of knowledgeor as the instru-mentof a terribledeath. He must have thought hatrdsiliswasa noun and a specificname of the tree,and since he could nottranslate t he adopted it in its original form. He has treated tas a neuter noun perhaps on the analogy ofO.N. tr6,n. (cf. alsoLat. lignum,n., common in early Christian literature for thecross). The Latin mdlushas such a wide rangeofmeaning thatit will be difficult,erhaps impossible, o saywhat shade ofmean-ing he saw in it. This meaningwouldno doubt be dependentonthecontext n whichmdlus rdsilis occurred. Perhaps a meaning"evil, terrible, wful,"will not be farwide of the mark(cf.yggtin the Atlampl passage above). It would thereforenot seemunfitting o translatemalus rasilis as "The Terrible (Gallows-)Tree,The AwfulGallows;" cf.English bitter ross,cursed cross,and Lat. mala crux,which is of frequent ccurrence n Plautusand Terence: i (abi) in malam crucem "go and be hanged;"dignus fuit, qui malo cruce (masc.) periret, Enn. ann. 261(Georges).2It now remains to discuss the origin of the nominativeformdrasill. Since the Christianworld-treewas in the North con-ceived of as an ash, the namewas usually found n thecollocationaskr Yggdrasils. Only once,namely n Volusp5 19, 1, does thename Yggdrasill appear independentlyof askr. This stanza isrecorded in five MSS.: three of them have yggdrasill, oneygdrasill, and one yggdrasils. Bugge and most editors have

I If he could confusemalus withmdclus,ould he not also read rasilis as rdsilis?2The question as to whetherthere s in Norse sourcesanytrace ofthe conceptionofthetreeofknowledgeas leafless and barkless (rasilis) is answered in the affirmative yBUGGE,Studier, p. 458. In Grimnesmol35,2, t is said of the tree that " it rots on the side (d hlibofinar)." The connection is a veryprobable one; the dragonNidh9ggrwhichgnaws on thetreefrom elow is probably also, withBugge, thedragon of Seth's vision.67


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12 SIVERT N. HAGENfollowedthemajorityreading. Sijmons has adoptedthe readingYgqgdrasels,presumablyon the assumptionthat askr is to besupplied mentally: Ask veitk tanda heiterYggdrasels (sc. askr).1The frequencyof the formula skr Yggdrasils naturally ed tothe assumptionthat -drasils was the genitiveform: cf. allt rikitItalielands, Rdmaborgarriki,fiskr idtdvitnis, enris tlfr,whichareparallelexamplestoarborfici,urbsAntiochiae, tc.2 The infer-ence that-drasils was thegenitiveform ould also easilybe drawnfrom he fact thatthe word seemed to contain the commonNorsesuffix ill (Gmc. -ila-). Thus a nominative form-drasill wasobtained throughan analogical process which does not differnprinciplefrom hatwhich accounts for the singularChinee fromChinese,Portuguee fromPortuguese, shay from haise,pea from0. E. pios-an.In the light of the foregoingthe readingheiterYggdrasilsmay reasonablybe considereda relic froma time when the treewas actually called Yggdrasils (*yggt rasilis), and before theform drasill had been obtained in the manner that has beenindicated.Now, since the name Yggdrasill meant"cross, gallows" (cf.Goth. galga Xristaus; O. E. gealga, 0. N. galgi, also used ofthe Christian cross), and since the second elementcould not beunderstood nd identifiedwitha nativeword, t would be naturalfor the Skaldic poets to regard it as a kenningfor "gallows;"and since "horse" was a veryfrequent kenning for "gallows,"3'the conclusion was easily and naturallyreachedthatdrasill mustbe a kenning for "horse." Hence the poetic word drasill,"horse," foundnowhereexceptin Skaldic poetry, nd leavingnotraceof itself n popular speech.The name Yggdrasill is therefore ot originallydrawn fromthe storyof the hanging of Odin as described in the Hvaml.1 AGNI*SSON, Odin's Horse Yggdrasill, London, 1895,p. 5 et passim interprets askrYggdrasils as " the ash of Odin's horse," " the ash ofSleipner," which is the horse of Odin.Yggdrasill is, therefore, ot the name ofthe tree,but simplya kenningfor the eight-footedSleipner,which is symbolicof thewinds that blow among the branches of theworld-tree.MOGK,Mythologie, . Gr.,Vol. III, p. 335, pproves of this interpretation.2DETTER, Ark.f. nord.Filologi, Vol. XIII, p. 205.2One or two examples fromEnglish mayherebe added: " to mountthe wooden horse""to be hanged on the gallows;" " You'll ride on a horse that was foaled of an acorn.That is the gallows " (cf.N. E. D.). 68


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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YGGDRASILL 13On the contrary t is even possible that the name which meant"gallows" and which might seem to contain the name Yggr,"Odin," may be the cause for the transference f the storyofChrist'scrucifixion oOdin.' Propernames are mostprolificmyth-makers. The mythologicaldictionaries and manuals are full ofreferences o this verycommonprocess,and it is unnecessary ocite examples. It is, ofcourse,possible that the crucifixiontorymayhave been transferred o Odin for some other reason. Forthepresent,however, preferto leave this matter in abeyance.In the name Yggdrasill there lies, as I believe, a definiteanswer to the question whether Norse mythologyhas beenmaterially nfluencedby Christian conceptionsand legends,andalso a proof that Bugge's pointofview and method are correct.It gives us some insight nto themethod and materialof Skaldicpoetryand into the culturalrelations of Norwaywiththe outsideworld in theViking Age. All the sources of Norse mythologyand heroic legends must be carefully tudied in order that thenative and foreign elementsmay be distinguished from eachother, nd in order thatwe maycorrectly nderstandthe natureofScandinavianculture n thisperiod. ProfessorBugge's epoch-makingstudies in northernmythological nd heroiclegendshavealreadyaccomplished so much in thisdirection that the presentcontribution,f it receive the approvalof scholars,will seem onlya slightone. If myresults be correct,then I have found thetruth n this particularcase only because I have long recognizedthe importance fBugge's greatwork.2 SIVERT N. HAGEN.UNIVERSITY OF IOWA.

1 AGNtSSON, Odin's Horse, p. 41,explains the originof themyth f Odin's hanging asdue to the "false reading" heiter Yggdrasill (Vsp. 19,1) forheiter Yggdrasils. See alsop. 21,footnote.2This paper was already completed before Indogermanische Forschungen, Vol. XIV(1903), came to hand. This volume contains an article by KAHLE, "AltwestnordischeNamenstudien," and onebyNOREEN, Suffix-AblautmAltnordischen,"and in both articlesreference s made to the declension of drasill, whichshows an o in dat. sg.,drosli; gen. pl.and ace., drosla; dat. drgslum. Kahle, p. 157, omparesferill: fgrull,bitill: bitull, gengill:gongull,but also considers it possible, with Bugge, that9 is due to the analogy of the dat.plural. Noreen,p. 396,would set up the rulethat -il: -ul was so distributedthat the formerstood in the unsyncopated cases, the latter in the syncopated ones. It cannot be showneven on this basis that drasill is a Germanic word: its declensionwould naturallyfollowthe analogy ofothernouns ending in -ill.

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name and origin of yggdrasill

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