Yggdrasil Quotes

“Unsettled, a bird lost from the flock --
Keeps flying by itself in the dusk.
Back and forth, it has no resting place,
Night after night, more anguished its cries.
Its shrill sound yearns for the pure and distant --
Coming from afar, how anxiously it flutters!

It chances to find a pine tree growing all apart;
Folding its wings, it has come home at last.
In the gusty wind there is no dense growth;
This canopy alone does not decay.
Having found a perch to roost on,
In a thousand years it will not depart.”
― Qian Tao

“That looks like a tree, let's call it a tree,' said Coyote to Earthmaker at the beginning, and they walked around the rootdrinker patting their bellies.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity

“Does Yggdrasil drink from it because it is the Well of Wisdom, or is it the Well of Wisdom because Yggdrasil drinks from it?”
― J. Aleksandr Wootton, Her Unwelcome Inheritance

“I know that I hung
on the windy tree
Nine full nights,
Pierced by a spear
offered to Odin
Myself to myself
of which none knows
Upon that tree
Where its roots run...”
― John Michael Greer, The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca

“Is it the Well of Wisdom because Yggdrasil drinks from it, or does Yggdrasil drink from it because it is the Well of Wisdom?”
― J. Aleksandr Wootton, Her Unwelcome Inheritance

“Under the root *( of the Ash Yggdrasil ) that goes to the frost giants is the Well of Mimir.
Wisdom and Intelligence are hidden there, and Mimir is the name of the well's owner. He is full of wisdom because he drinks of the well from the Gjallarhorn.
All-father went there and asked for one drink from the well, but he did not get this until he gave one of his eyes as a pledge.
As it says in The Sibyl's Prophesy :
Odin, I know all,
where you hid the eye
in that famous
Well of Mimir.
Each morning
Mimir drinks mead
from Val-Father's pledge.
Do you know now or what ?
( The Sibyl's Prophesy. 28 )”
― Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology

“Then spoke Gangleri: 'Where is the chief centre or holy place of the gods?'
High replied: 'It is at the ash Yggdrasil. There the gods must hold their courts each day.'
Then spoke Gangleri: 'What is there to tell about that place?'
Then said Just-as-high: 'The ash is of all trees the biggest and best. Its branches spread out over all the world and extend across the sky. Three of the tree's roots support it and extend very, very far. One is among the Æsir, the second among the frost-giants, where Ginnungagap once was. The third extends over Niflheim, and under that root is Hvergelmir, and Nidhogg gnaws the bottom of the root. But under the root that reaches towards the frost-giants, there is where Mimir's well is, which has wisdom and intelligence contained in it, and the master of the well is called Mimir. He is full of learning because he drinks of the well from the horn Giallarhorn. All-father went there and asked for a single drink from the well, but he did not get one until he placed his eye as a pledge. Thus it says in Voluspa:
I know it all, Odin, where you deposited your eye, in that renowned well of Mimir. Mimir drinks mead every morning from Val-father's pledge. Know you yet, or what?”
― Anthony Faulkes, Edda: Skaldskaparmal (Set of 2 Copies)