Each ancient people had their own legends describing the structure of the world. Many of them are radically different, but the worldviews of neighboring cultures tend to be similar in many ways. The legends of the Slavic and Scandinavian peoples coincide especially strongly. For both of them, the axis that supports all existing worlds is the World Tree.
The pagan Slavs believed that the world was like an egg. According to the legends of the same tribe
of peoples, this egg was laid by a certain "cosmic" bird, and in the legends of the Slavs Alive, the Great Mother, who gave birth to the earth and sky, is mentioned. 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 lower half is 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 at a time, the Sun and stars “walk” around the Earth, the Moon lives 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 the Slavs connects all parts of the "egg". The Tree resembles a huge oak tree, the roots of which go to the World of the Dead, and the crown reaches the Seventh Heaven. Ancestors believed that you can climb to heaven along the Oak. The echoes of these beliefs have reached us in the form of fairy tales. On the branches of the Tree in
seeds and fruits of all plants of the Earth ripen. Where the World Tree touches the Seventh Heaven, there is the island of Irey or Buyan, where the ancestors of all earthly birds and animals live. But even the Oak did not reach the Eighth and Ninth Heaven. These last skies remained a mystery to the ancient Slavs.
In the Old Norse legends, the world works a little differently. The Scandinavian World Tree - Yggdrasil - was an ash tree. This Great Ash Tree, which grew in the center of the universe, had three roots. One descended directly into the underworld of Hel, the second reached the kingdom of the wise frost giants of Jotunheim, and the third root sprouted into Midgard, the world of people. This world order seems somewhat strange, since the World Ash tree of Scandinavian myths grows crown down. This is how the Old Norse peoples used logs, propping up the walls and ceilings of their dwellings with them. Ash was cared for by the sisters of the Norns, goddesses of the present past and future. Every day the Norns watered the World Tree vividly
th water spring of Urd, gushing at the roots of the Tree. The crown of the Ash 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 the crownit reaches Valhalla, the palace of Odin. The ash-tree of the Scandinavians united not only the worlds. He tied the times together.
The world tree appears not only in the legends of northern peoples. This image is also present in Chinese legends. The seven roots of Kisi Mutozhe, the Chinese Tree of Life, are fed from seven sources hidden in the bowels of the earth. Its seven branches touch the seven heavens where the gods live. The Chinese tree not only connects heaven and earth, but also serves as a ladder along which the Sun and the Moon "walk" up and down, as well as heroes and sages - mediators between the world of people and heaven.
