The universe according to Norse mythology is organized around a giant ash tree called Yggdrasill. But did you know that the motif of worshiping a giant, cosmically-central tree shows up in 8th-century Christian literature from England? And did you know the word "Yggdrasill" might be a reference to a story about Odin learning the runes by means of hanging himself? This episode doesn't cover everything the myths say about the famous World Tree, but it does dive into the importance of the great, cosmic ash to the ancient Norse and other pagan, Germanic societies.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com). Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/