The gross world is the world our senses bring us, the world of geology and chemistry. Bearing it up, is the world of physics and higher mathematics. Beyond and behind this chimerical world, the sensible world that seems so solid, the cerebral world that makes such sense, is the true cosmos, bound by the root, branch, and bole of the world tree.

Based in the underworld, adamantine roots twining about three deep springs, the tree unites the nine true worlds. At the crown of the tree stoops an eagle, and four stags feed on its highest boughs. Goats with mad slit eyes crop its leaves and prune its twigs. Beneath the great tree a wyrm, a dragon, gnaws the gnarled roots, and a squirrel runs up and down, bearing contention between the dragon and the sharp-eyed eagle.

So, at least, the Norse conceptualized their universe, knowing there was more to the world than the open eye could see. They counted nine worlds, whose names and natures are blurred by time and change and disputed by academics. Certainly, there is a world of humans, one of the gods, and one of the other tribe of gods. The giants have a world of their own. The elves have a world, and perhaps the dark elves, who may be dwarves, have another. Hel rules the world of the dead, and perhaps this world also. The other two worlds may be the primordial worlds of fire and ice, whose near conjunction may have brought about the birth of the worlds we know.

The three taproots of the world tree are planted in the world of the gods, the world of the giants, and the world of the dead. The spring that waters the tree in the world of the giants grants wisdom to those who drink its waters, and the father of the gods gave up an eye to drink of it. The well that waters the root that grows in the world of the gods is guarded by the three Norns, and their waters preserve the tree. The source in the world of the dead is also the headwaters of eleven mighty rivers.

The tree existed before the gods. At the end of the world, when the gods and giants contend, and slay one another until none is left, then the last man and woman will take refuge in the tree.

When the worlds begin again, they will be the first man and woman, left standing by the world tree.