Tree of salvation : Yggdrasil and the cross in the north

This 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. At the heart of the mythology of the Anglo-Scandinavian-Germanic North is the evergreen Yggdrasil, the tree of life believed to hold up the skies and unite and separate three worlds: Asgard, high in the tree, where the gods dwelled in their great halls; Middlegard, where human beings lived; and the dark underground world of Hel, home to the monstrous goddess of death. With the advent of Christianity in the North around the year 1000, Yggdrasil was recast as the cross on which Christ sacrificed himself. Murphy offers an insightful examination of the lasting significance of Yggdrasil in northern Europe, showing that the tree's image persisted not simply through its absorption into descriptions of Christ's crucifix, but through recognition by the newly converted Christians of the truth of their new religion in the images and narratives of their older faith. Murphy shows how the new dispensation was a realization of the old. He shows how architectural and literary works are all indebted to the cultural interweaving of cross and tree in the North