Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

In regard to the position of Yggdrasil and its roots in the universe, there are
statements both in Gylfaginning and in the ancient heathen records. To get a clear idea,
freed from conjectures and based in all respects on evidence of how the mythology
conceived the world-tree and its roots, is of interest not only in regard to the
cosmography of the mythology, to which Yggdrasil supplies the trunk and the main
outlines, but especially in regard to the mythic conception of the lower world and the
whole eschatology; for it appears that each one of the Yggdrasil roots stands not only
above its particular fountain in the lower world, but also above its peculiar lower-world
domain, which again has its peculiar cosmological character and its peculiar
eschatological purpose.
The first condition, however, for a fruitful investigation is that we consider the
heathen or heathen-appearing records by themselves without mixing their statements with
those of Gylfaginning. We must bear in mind that the author of Gylfaginning lived and
wrote in the 13th century, more than 200 years after the introduction of Christianity in
Iceland, 4 and that his statements accordingly are a link in that chain of documents which
exist for the scholar, who tries to follow the fate of the myths during a Christian period
and to study their gradual corruption and confusion.
This caution is the more important since an examination of Gylfaginning very
soon shows that the whole cosmographical and eschatological structure which it has built
out of fragmentary mythic traditions is based on the idea that the Teutons were descended
from the Trojans, and that their gods were originally Trojan chiefs and magicians, a
conception framed by scholars in Frankish cloisters, and then handed down from
chronicle to chronicle. This "learned" conception, wholly foreign to Germanic
mythology, found its way to the North, and finally developed its most luxurious and
abundant blossoms in the preface of the Prose Edda and in certain other parts of that
work.
Permit me to present in brief a sketch of how the cosmography and eschatology of
Gylfaginning developed themselves out of this assumption: The Aesir were originally
men, and dwelt in the Troy which was situated on the center of the earth, and which was
identical with Asgard (Þar næst gjörðu þeir sér borg i miðjum heimi, er kallað er
Ásgarður; það köllum vér Trója. Þar byggðu guðin og ættir þeirra og gjörðust þaðan af
mörg tíðindi og greinir bæði á jörðu og á lofti - Gylfaginning 9). 5
The Bifröst bridge is the first mythic tradition which supplies material for the
structure which Gylfaginning builds on this foundation. The myth had said that this
bridge united the celestial abodes with a part of the universe lying somewhere below.
Gylfaginning, which allows the Aesir to dwell in Troy, therefore has the gods undertake
an enterprise of the greatest boldness, that of building a bridge from Troy to the heavens.
But they are extraordinary architects and succeed (guðin gjörðu brú til himins af jörðu -
Gylfaginning 13). 6
The second mythic tradition employed is Urd's fountain. The myth had stated that
the gods rode on the Bifröst bridge from their celestial abodes to Urd's (subterranean)
4 In the year 1000 AD.
5 "Next they made a city for themselves in the center of the world that they called Asgard; we call it Troy.
There dwelt the gods and their descendants, and many tidings and reports of it were made both on earth and
in the air."
6 "The gods built a bridge to the heavens from the earth."