Tree of Salvation

Abstract

The book is a study of the evidence in art, artifact, architecture, and poetry that the myth of Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree of life associated with the gods, the runes, fate, and ragnarok in Norse/Germanic mythology, was associated in northern Christianity with the cross of Christ. The events of the story of Yggdrasil were seen as a kind of foreshadowing for the events in the New Testament, especially the crucifixion and resurrection, and the ultimate salvation of human beings from death and their corpses from the Nidhogg. Evidence for the religious association of the stories of Yggdrasil with the cross is examined in the following: the Jelling stone in Denmark, the Norwegian stave churches, the portal at Urnes, the round churches on Bornholm, the baptismal font at Aakirkeby, the Viking crosses at Middleton in Yorkshire, The Dream of the Rood and the Ruthwell cross, the elder futhark, the Yule wreath, the Christmas tree, and “The Holly and the Ivy.”