Map

plant

Tree

Nature

A woody plant. World-trees, sacrificial poles, and ordinary timber are different meetings with the same kind of body.

Also known as world tree

Norse tradition

  • Tree appears in Norse tradition.

    Snorri’s Yggdrasil is an ash that stands among the worlds. It is a Norse picture of a tree, not a generic world-axis imported from elsewhere in this record.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Tree is associated with Three.

    Snorri gives Yggdrasil three roots reaching toward different worlds. The three is a structural count in that prose, not the Greek Moirai.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Tree is associated with Underworld.

    One of Yggdrasil’s roots, in Snorri, reaches toward the dead. The below is a Norse below.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    associated with · partially sourced · documented

  • Tree is associated with Death.

    The world-tree stands over wells and the dead as Snorri arranges them. The tree is not itself a tomb.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    associated with · partially sourced · documented

  • Odin is associated with Tree.

    Snorri describes the ash Yggdrasil as the world-tree among whose roots the gods hold court. Odin’s name is later tied to that tree; the pairing is Norse, not a universal axis.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Well is associated with Tree.

    Snorri’s ash stands over wells. The pairing is that prose’s architecture, not a universal tree-and-spring.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Tree contains Leaf.

    A tree makes leaves. Seasonal shedding is a botanical fact Yggdrasil does not cancel.

    contains · interpretive · documented

  • Tree is associated with Seed.

    Trees begin as seed. The world-ash of Snorri is still a plant in that sense, even as a mythic architecture.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • Tree is historically related to Cross.

    In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediæval Christian Art, the cross was frequently represented literally as a tree, and was occasionally painted green in Passion and Crucifixion subjects — the cross is shown as that tree.

    from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

    historically related to · sourced · documented

  • Serpent is historically related to Tree.

    In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediæval Christian Art, the serpent has its natural form entwined round the stem of the tree beside Adam and Eve — the serpent coils that tree.

    from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

    historically related to · sourced · documented

  • Apple is historically related to Tree.

    In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediæval Christian Art, Fall scenes place the apple with the serpent twined around the tree — the apple hangs on that tree.

    from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

    historically related to · sourced · documented

Buddhist traditions

  • Tree appears in Buddhist traditions.

    Watson’s Lotus Sūtra seats jeweled trees that rain flowers in Buddha-lands. A named tree in that sūtra, not Yggdrasil alone and not a generic forest dump.

    from Burton Watson (translation) · The Lotus Sutra, 1993 (this translation); Sanskrit/Chinese recensions much older

    appears in · sourced · documented

Vedic tradition

Islam

  • Tree appears in Islam.

    The Qur’an names trees among provision, parable speech, and forbidden/near trees in garden narratives. Islamic tree speech in that revelation, not lotus as sidra stretch (refused) and not a generic forest dump.

    from M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation) · The Qur’an, 2004 (this translation); Arabic text 7th century CE

    appears in · sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

  • Tree appears in Egyptian religion.

    Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris narrates the Byblos tree (erica/heather) that enclosed Osiris’s chest — a named tree inside Egyptian Osiris myth as that Greek treatise tells it. A named tree presence in egyptian-religion under this source, not a missing Byblos place id and not larnax as the chest.

    from Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE

    appears in · sourced · culturally specific

Hellenic religion

  • Tree appears in Hellenic religion.

    Pausanias names sacred and storied trees among Greek sanctuaries—olive of the Acropolis neighbors, plane and oak cult marks—beyond single species already walked. A named tree class in that periegesis, not grove alone and not every timber dump.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Olive is associated with Tree.

    The olive is a tree. Athena’s gift is one civic story about that tree.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    associated with · sourced · documented

Shinto

  • Tree appears in Shinto.

    The Kojiki’s island and land births include trees among the living world’s formed growth, and wooded landmarks mark campaign roads. Named tree as land-birth growth in that cosmogony, not Yggdrasil and not sakaki as later shrine evergreen furniture.

    from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968

    appears in · sourced · documented

sources