Each ancient nation had its own legends describing the structure of the world. Many of them are radically different, but the worldviews of neighboring cultures, as a rule, are very similar. Especially strong are the legends of the Slavic and Scandinavian peoples. And for those, and for others, the World Tree serves as the axis that supports all existing worlds.
The pagan Slavs believed that the world was like an egg. According to the legends of single tribes
peoples, this egg was laid by a certain “cosmic” bird, and the Slavs legend mentions Zhiva, the Great Mother, who gave birth to earth and sky. The earth in this giant egg takes the place of the yolk, on the upper half of which is the world of people, and on the bottom - the Night Country or the World of the Dead. The Earth is surrounded by a “squirrel” - the Ocean-Sea. The shell of the “world egg” consists of nine layers corresponding to the Nine Heavens. Each sky has its own purpose. One by one around the Earth the Sun and the stars "go", the Month dwells on the other, the next sky is reserved for winds and clouds. The Slavs considered the seventh heavenly layer to be the solid bottom of the Ocean, an inexhaustible source of living and rain water.
The World Tree of Slavs connects all parts of the "egg". The Tree resembles a huge oak whose roots go to the World of the Dead, and the crown reaches the Seventh Heaven. Ancestors believed that Oak can climb to heaven. Echoes of these beliefs have come down to us in the form of fairy tales. On the branches of a tree in
The seeds and fruits of all the plants of the Earth are ripening. Where the
World Tree touches the Seventh Heaven, there is the island of Irey or Buyan, on which the ancestors of all earthly birds and animals live. But even Oak did not reach the Eighth and Ninth Heavens. These last heavens remained a mystery to the
ancient Slavs.
In Old Norse legends, the world is a little different. The Scandinavian World Tree - Yggdrasil - was an ash tree. This Great Ash Tree, grown in the center of the universe, had three roots. One descended directly into the underworld Hel, the second reached the kingdom of the wise frosty giants of Jotunheim, and the third root grew into Midgard, the world of people. This world order seems somewhat strange, since the World Ash of Scandinavian myths grows crown down. That is how the logs of the Old Norse peoples used them, propping up the walls and ceilings of their dwellings. The sisters of Norna, the goddess of the present past and future, were courting Ashen. Every day the Norns watered the World Tree vividly
with the water of the spring of Urd, beating at the roots of the Tree. Crohn Ashen gave shelter to the wise eagle, endowed with the gift of omniscience. The trunk of the Tree united all the worlds described in
Scandinavian mythology, and its crown reaches Valhalla, the palace of Odin. Scandinavian ash united not only worlds. He tied the times together.
The world tree appears not only in the legends of northern nationalities. This image is present in Chinese legends. The seven roots of Kishi-Mutoger, the Chinese Tree of Life, feed from seven sources hidden in the bowels of the earth. Its seven branches touch the seven heavens on which the gods live. The Chinese tree not only connects heaven and earth, but also serves as a ladder along which the Sun and Moon “walk” up and down, as well as heroes and sages - mediators between the world of people and heaven.