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 == Extended yggdrasil and odin article == 

  
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 : Three Norns spinning at yggdrasil]] 
 In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil (; from Old Norse Yggdrasill, pronounced ) is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology. It was said to be the world tree around which the nine worlds existed. Its name is generally considered to mean ""Ygg's (Odin's) horse"". 
 Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Yggdrasil is an immense ash tree that is central and considered very holy. The gods go to Yggdrasil daily to hold their courts. The branches of Yggdrasil extend far into the heavens, and the tree is supported by three roots that extend far away into other locations; one to the well Urðarbrunnr in the heavens, one to the spring Hvergelmir, and another to the well Mímisbrunnr. Creatures live within Yggdrasil, including the wyrm (dragon) Níðhöggr, an unnamed eagle, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór. 
 Conflicting scholarly theories have been proposed about the etymology of the name Yggdrasill, the possibility that the tree is of another species than ash, the relation to tree lore and to Eurasian shamanic lore, the possible relation to the trees Mímameiðr and Læraðr, Hoddmímis hnolt, the sacred tree at Uppsala, and the fate of Yggdrasil during the events of Ragnarök. 
 ==Terminology== 
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 The generally accepted meaning of Old Norse Yggdrasill is ""Odin's horse"". This conclusion is drawn on the basis that drasill means ""horse"" and Ygg(r) is one of Odin's many names. The Poetic Edda poem Hávamál describes how Odin sacrificed himself to himself by hanging from a tree, making this tree Odin's gallows. This tree may have been Yggdrasil. Gallows can be called ""the horse of the hanged"" and therefore Odin's gallows may have developed into the expression ""Odin's horse"", which then became the name of the tree.Simek (2007:375). 
 Nevertheless, scholarly opinions regarding the precise meaning of the name Yggdrasill vary, particularly on the issue of whether Yggdrasill is the name of the tree itself. In the Prose Edda the tree is usually not just called Yggdrasil but askr Yggdrasils. Old Norse askr means ""ash tree"" and according to the  inflectional system of Icelandic language askr Yggdrasils means ""Yggdrasill's ash"". Icelandic has the best preserved inflectional system of the Norse languages and the Prose Edda was also written in old Icelandic. These etymologies do though rely on a presumed but unattested *Yggsdrasill. 
 A third interpretation, presented by F. Detter, is that the name Yggdrasill refers to the word yggr (""terror""), yet not in reference to the Odinic name, but rather as Yggdrasill as the ""tree of terror, gallows"". F. R. Schröder has proposed a fourth etymology according to which yggdrasill means ""yew pillar"", deriving yggia from *igwja (meaning ""yew-tree""), and drasill from *dher- (meaning ""support""). 
 ==Attestations== 
 ===Poetic Edda=== 
 In the Poetic Edda, the tree is mentioned in the three poems Völuspá, Hávamál, and Grímnismál. 
 ====Völuspá==== 

 In the second stanza of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, the völva (a shamanic seeress) reciting the poem to the god Odin says that she remembers far back to ""early times"", being raised by jötnar, recalls nine worlds and ""nine wood-ogresses"" (Old Norse nío ídiðiur), and when Yggdrasil was a seed (""glorious tree of good measure, under the ground"").Dronke (1997:7). In stanza 19, the völva says: 

 :An ash I know there stands, 
 :Yggdrasill is its name, 
 :a tall tree, showered 
 :with shining loam.