Myth. Forms: 8 Ydrasil, 9 Ig-, Y(g)gdrasil. [ON. yg(g)drasill, also askr yg(g)drasils lit. ash-tree of Yggdrasil (? f. Yggr name of Odin + drasill horse; but the formation is obscure).] In Scandinavian mythology, the great tree whose branches and roots extend through the universe. Also allusively.
1770. trans. Mallet’s Northern Antiq., II. Fab. viii. 49. Gangler demanded: Which is the capital of the Gods, or the sacred city: Har answers, It is under the Ash Ydrasil; where the Gods assemble every day, and administer justice.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, iii. 165. The Tree Igdrasil, that has its roots down in the Kingdoms of Hela and Death, and whose boughs overspread the highest Heaven!
1865. W. H. Gillespie, Argt. Mor. Attrib. God, 51. It [sc. Love] is, in fact, the mundane Yggdrasil.
1865. Lowell, Thoreau, Wks. 1890, I. 361. The nameless eagle of the tree Ygdrasil.
1878. Emerson, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 413. You say: ‘Cut away; my tree is Ygdrasil—the tree of life.’
