'Near the fountain which is under the Ash, stands a very beautiful city, wherein dwell three virgins, named URDA, or the Past; VERDANDI, or the Present; and SOKULDA, or the Future. These are they who dispense the ages of men; they are called Norn[=a]s, that is, Fates. But there are indeed very many others besides these, who assist at the birth of every child, to determine his fate. Some are of celestial origin; others descend from the Genii, and others from the dwarfs.' * * * *
'GANGLER proceeds, desiring to know something more concerning the Ash. HAR replied: 'What I have farther to add concerning it is, that there is an eagle perched upon its branches, who knows a multitude of things, but he hath between his eyes a sparrow-hawk (_qui Vederloefner vocatur_). A squirrel runs up and down the Ash, sowing misunderstanding between the eagle and the serpent, which lies concealed at its root. Pour stags run across the branches of the tree, and devour its rind. There are so many serpents in the fountain whence spring the rivers of hell, that no tongue can recount them, as is said in these verses:
'_Fraxinus Ygdrasil plura patitur, Quam ullus mortalium Cogitatione assequi valeat. Cervus depascitur inferius (rectius cacumen) Sed circa latera putrescit. Nidhoggius_ (the serpent) _arrodit subtus._'
'The Destinies, who reside near the fountain of the Past, draw up water thence, with which they bedew the Ash, to prevent its branches from growing withered and decayed. Of so purifying a nature is that water, that whatever it touches becomes as white as the film which is within an egg.
'Fraxinum novi stantem, Vocatem Ygdrasil Proceram et sacram albe luto, Hinc venit ros, Qui in valles cadit, Stat super virente Urdar fonte.'
'Men call this the honey-dew, and it is the food of bees. There are also in this fountain two swans, which have produced all the birds of that species.'
Does the reader care to know the meaning of all this? It is hardly worth while, since to those who feel its grotesque poetry quite enough of the symbolism is already revealed. But let the plodding German FRIEDREICH 'have his say.' 'The name of the Ash, Yggdrasil,' he tell us, 'signifies God's Horse, from YGGR, a name of the god Odin, and _drasil_, the poetic term for a horse. With this name one hath GOD'S rule over all things, since he ruleth them even as a rider controls his steed, and by _Yggdrasil_ is consequently signified the almighty power of GOD. The Ash is the Universe, its twigs are the Ether, spread over the World-all; the eagle is the Infinite glance, penetrating heaven and earth; and the squirrel the medium by which the deeds and condition of the Gods are brought to men. The stags, whose swiftness betokens the restless, rapid passions of man, are the ailments of the soul; and the green leaves which they devour, are sound, healthy thoughts.' According to Hauch (_Die Nordische Mythenlehre_, Leipsic, 1847, p. 28), these swift stags are the four winds of heaven which scatter the leaves. The snake is the destroying force in Nature, and in the clear fountain lies wisdom--which at least teaches us the highly respectable origin of the assertion that 'truth lies at the bottom of a well.' In the next spring lies the knowledge of the future--hinting at much fortune telling by means of pools, and faces of future husbands in basins of water and mirrors; while the three virgins are the _Parcæ_--the goddesses of destiny. You know these ladies, reader; but here they are grander, gloomier, diviner than were our old friends Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. And the endless strife between the eagle and the serpent, stirred up by the squirrel, is the 'ever-battling, interchangeable action between Spirit and Matter, the ever hence-and-hither rolling, as of waves, to good or evil in the human heart.'