Yggdrasil, the tree of Mankind

You know! This dame was a priestess among the Vikings. Ingegerd was her name. She had to teach her people how to connect. It was a matter of fact that the men roamed on sea and land. They had to get a stick for each relative to get into skies and heavens above. Yes, it´s true… Only a true warrior was allowed to eat Särimner (the pig) up among the gods. And those Viking gods were very close in resemblance to Mankind. They ate, they drank, they had sex, they had envy, they had to build a hall among all halls where only the best could join into that very feast. As some down on earth were poor and without status, then Ingegerd had to come up with a new strategy...

There were layers of spheres high up above, which meant that the men knew not about hard core facts on earth...why so one can wonder! Because the earth belonged to mothers, sisters, woemen, dames, queens, girls and one dwarf here and there. Ingegerd sat down on a hill a sunny day. Pondering was her gift from the godess. But how on earth could she change men´s hearts? They were for sure just about as stubborn as that!

Ingegerd somehow was allowed to teach rites and ceremonies. As men liked the war god, it was a known fact that girls had to get attuned into spiritualism. Some girls dreamt of becoming heroes, but well yes – the priestess Ingegerd had to come to terms with it all. But then again!

She had given birth to seven children, whom all had been sacrificed to the war god Thor. It was her beloved husband who had forced her to give them as the bait. She had not been willing to do so, but she also had a knowledge of the people on earth. She also knew that gods could be dangerous if they did not follow in their paths. Dangerous if one went against the rules from the gods. In matters of love and hate one was inclined to just do! Do it! It was a melody and a song by singers all around. But anyhow they had come to know even foreigners on their journeys all around. That was it! One can now wonder about her severe Viking tears. It was like she had to learn of how to stop crying, just to get to terms with the conditions of life. To come to terms with men? Was that the reason to sing a tune or two about the people of all Earth? All of them had to be connected to Yggdrasil, the tree. That was from now on Ingegerd´s last chance to save the ground on which she walked. On which every god damn crature walked!

Yes, it is true that she had heard rumours from men who had been abroad.

And there was still the Yggdrasil, the tree of the people. It grew in the middle of the earth and everybody did not yet know about it...But why did they hang people at that very tree, she asked. Why not change the rituals into something else?

The smell from girls who hang from Yggrasil was awful. The gods wanted to eat dead bodies and they whispered that girls had a more tender meat. Awful but true. So today there are still gossip about the Viking people up north, who seldom cry and who seldom are romantic in the southern way of a more sentimental and nostalgic mood. And Viking men? Well... They are hard about hard core facts. Stubborn when mild. Knowing when stupid. Upside-down when roaming the sea for the adventures of a saga or a tale. As the saying goes: ”Everyone who has done a journey knows how to tell a story, simply because they have become philosophers….”

Ingegerd took that saying to her heart and asked the crew on the latest ship if she could go with them on their next raid. NO! The answer from the men came as abrupt as a wink from a sparrow not knowing that wings was her habit. Ingegerd went back to the hill to ponder even more. But oh, she wanted so much to be a philosopher. When she returned to the crew she explained that she had talked to the love god, who also ruled the earth´s fertility. Ingegerd asked if she could come with the crew on their next journey. NO. The answer was as clear as the sky was blue. And it was a hard core fact that Viking men meant everything they said. Facts was from Thor, the war god of all gods.

Ingegerd went back to her hill, and now it was at sunset. She softly began crying. Crying because of it all. The children she and lots of other woemen had lost. The war. The trading that brought in jewellry no one dared to wear, as there might be an evil spirit in gold and silver. Only the frilla Brita was the silly one to go along with everything men wanted from her. Silly thing!

Now it had to be an end to all that. Up on the hill Ingegerd looked straight into the flames of the sinking sun and loads of visions came into her soul.

It might be an odd knowledge to you all, but Vikings had no word for the concept of the ´mind.`

So seeing things from the eyes meant it had to sink into the awarness of a totality. This meant that the tree Yggdrasil was connected to the whole planet. And in her visions Ingegerd saw a brilliant plan. Men had to learn how to connect to earth, as well as woemenfolks had to learn how to connect to the halls in the seven heavens. A new rite had to be created. But in doing so she must get the best king on her side, and he lived up among the Svea people, further up north, close to the Stocks where the holms met the Ball´s sea. Not that anyone could remember why their sea was named Ball, but so it was that Viking men liked to play games with their sexual habits. Oh men! Why do woemen honour them so much? Anyhow...there comes a day, one suggest, that - ?

Ingegerd went to Brita and asked what kind of goods and cargos there had been coming lately. Brita was, if we may use this word, a kind of foreign minister. She was clever in math and statistic but was still not allowed to sit at the council with the king down in Gotha land.

But it was known that staying outside the courts of the men woemen had to learn how to go the backdoor, learning how to play out the power getting men to fight for the godesse´s cause and reason. Love was a battle and a war to all folks on earth. And the Viking saying went: ”Only in love and war all means and methods are allowed.” So Brita and Ingegerd figured out that getting the crew over to their side they had to play the game on both sides. Love AND war! May it cost as it cost, both of them uttered. And the plot had to go their way.

Plots up among the Viking woemen were sometimes on their side. Having stayed outside the council they had to learn how to make plans outside the patterns of life. This seemed like a threat to all men, who did never see why woemen could not understand how to speak straight. But Brita knew how men worked. She said that in order to connect to one and all they had to frighten men about murder and war. Ingegerd had doubts that it would work, as she knew that men had no fear what so ever. They had learnt how to cut off feelings and emotions in their terrorism and in their war. So what about it? Ingegerd had to go to her hill to ponder once again.

The sun was about to sink even this time. She could very well see how the earth swallowed the sun. And that made it! A plot about how the earth has a goddess power to swallow the sun? So the earth in herself is pretty close to power, although she is a she. She went back to her hut to sleep upon the matter...And the tree Yggdrasil stood planted in the garden of some kind of Eden. Was Eden close to Sweden?

And everyone should come to know it. Even men. Even Viking men...

Day after day she brought warriors to the tree Yggdrasil. It stood upon that hill where the sun was radiating at a certain time of the day, when it sank below. Yes, the men had to agree. Sitting close to the tree as a backbone and looking ahead they could see the sun was eaten up by the earth. One after the other the men became afraid of the power of the earth. That was about it.

And on a following morning the crew brought Ingegerd and Brita up to the crew among the Svea king´s area. Close to the Stock by the Ball´s sea.

All the men up in Svea county had to listen to what the Ghota men had to say. It was because the tree Yggdrasil that men and women and children and birds and animals were connected to the ground, to the fields, to the meadows. To just about everything, both small and big. And the Svea king fell in love with Ingegerd at that moment, because he felt a connection for the first time in many years… If it was because of a tree no one could really know. Anyhows!

Next time when the men went abroad to a raid they figured out that it would perhaps be best to bring the priestess along with them. As she knew how to speak many and one languages. A queen she was from now on, as she had been married to Björn, the king. The Svea king!

But somehow on the water of the roads to other places she felt that the sea was a horrific wonder that made her feel like sinking to the guts of her own fear. It was a dangerous ride on that ocean. And all of a sudden she came to understand men´s fear.

The ocean not only swallowed the sun, it also swallowed the earth. And the myth born in her soul at that time came to her as a new vision.

So no matter how much we ponder about it. Sun, earth or sea: It can have powers to eat us all if we do not beware. And back in all garden of gardens stand still a treasure to Mankind. The tree Yggdrasil, that is to teach us of how to connect. It may not happen today or tomorrow. But some day we all have to go out to hug the first green plant on earth. A tree of course. What else could have grown out of a seed from nowhere? Nowhere at all can we have statistic about myth. It comes to us as naturally as a bird hovering above. And whenever a bird makes a nest in the tree we can be able to see for the first time. As one flew over the cucoo´s nest one became connected to the whole of everything. It takes a bit madness to join in...for a reason of poetry perhaps…

So if it does seem mad and bad to hug a tree we could give it a try. For a reason out of the sheer blue….As Vikings say it: ”Just do it!” It may sound rude to be that straight on, but in the end we might have to be forced. If not by Mankind, so by the tree itself. It calls your name. Can you hear it? ”Just do it!!!”