The Ash Tree: England’s Link to the Ancient Runes
- Jane Orton
- Jan 14
- 8 min read
We’ve planted our own native woodland and named it Woden’s Wood, after the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, Allfather of the English people! Many of our native trees have a special association with Anglo-Saxon paganism. In this week’s post, Dr. Orton investigates the ash tree, England’s link to the ancient runes! Part of our Trees and Anglo-Saxon Paganism series, in which we explore the links between our native British trees and Anglo-Saxon paganism!*
This series is more academically dense than some of our other posts. For a quicker, more accessible read, take a look at our posts about our baby tawny owls, polecats or animals that live in our woods at night!
We know that Ash trees were special to the Anglo-Saxons because the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, an eighth or ninth century verse written in Old English, has a verse dedicated to the ash rune, aesc: “The Ash, precious to men, is very tall. Firm in the ground, it keeps its place securely though many men attack it.”
Yggdrasil, the World Tree
Ash trees are special in Norse mythology because Yggdrasil, the tree connecting the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, is an ash tree. The Völuspá (“The Prophecy of the Seeress”) in the Poetic Edda, a collection Norse poems composed between the ninth and twelfth centuries, explicitly describes Yggdrasil as an ash tree.
Yggdrasil’s roots extend into Niflheim (the world of mist and ice, or the underworld) and Jotunheim (the world of the giants) and touch Mímisbrunnr (the Well of Wisdom), Urðarbrunnr (the Well of Fate), and Hvergelmir (the Well of Creation). The Grimnismol in this collection describes Yggdrasil’s three roots: “’Neath the first lives Hel, ’neath the second the frost-giants, ’Neath the last are the lands of men.”
The poem also describes the creatures that live in Yggdrasil. Níðhöggr (Nidhogg) the serpent lives at the bottom of the tree. At its peak perches an unnamed eagle, between whose eyes sits Veðrfölnir the hawk. Ratatoskr, the red squirrel runs up and down Yggdrasil’s trunk, carrying messages and insults between Níðhöggr and the eagle. The four stags, Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór graze among its branches: “Ratatosk is the squirrel/ who there shall run/On the ash-tree Yggdrasil/From above the words/ of the eagle he bears, And tells them to Nithhogg beneath. Four harts there are, that the highest twigs/Nibble with necks bent back; Dain and Dvalin, Duneyr and Dyrathror…Yggdrasil’s ash/great evil suffers, Far more than men do know; The hart bites its top, its trunk is rotting, And Nithhogg gnaws beneath.”
The Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda (a thirteenth century collection of Norse mythology associated with Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sturluson), also says that Yggdrasil is an ash tree. The text describes Yggdrasil’s cosmic significance: at Ragnarök, the apocalyptic battle of the gods, “…the Ash of Yggdrasill shall tremble, and nothing then shall be without fear in heaven or in earth.”
Yggdrasil is connected with the god Odin, because Odin sacrificed himself on Yggdrasil in exchange for mastery of the runes (letters of the Germanic alphabet with magical properties). The Hávamál in the Poetic Edda recounts Odin hanging “on the windy tree” for nine nights: “With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was/To Othin, myself to myself, On the tree that none/may ever know/What root beneath it runs. None made me happy/with loaf or horn, And there below I looked; I took up the runes, shrieking I took them, And forthwith back I fell.”
Woden and the Ash Tree
Unfortunately, we don’t have firm evidence that the Anglo-Saxons shared the belief in Yggdrasil, although there are linguistic theorists who argue that the Germanic world-tree (Yggdrasil in Norse and Irminsul in Old Saxon) could have had an Anglo-Saxon cognate: ēormensy. Irminsul is described in particular by Rudolf of Fulda in his De Miraculis Sancti Alexandri.
Clive Tolley notes that within Germanic contexts, the “best example of the world-pillar” is Irminsul, but argues that, while the Anglo-Saxons did value trees symbolically, there is not enough evidence to prove that the Anglo-Saxons had their own world-tree myth. Michael D. J. Bintley agrees in principle, but adds that the Anglo-Saxons had enough lore surrounding posts, pillars, sacred trees and ritual uses of wood to make the argument plausible.
We also don’t have direct evidence that Odin’s Anglo-Saxon equivalent, Woden, is associated with the story of Yggdrasil, but we can make a reasonable hypothesis that this is the case.
This is because we do have evidence that Woden is connected with mastery over the runes in Anglo-Saxon culture. The Nine Herbs Charm, an Anglo-Saxon charm recorded in a tenth or eleventh century collection of remedies, links Woden with the runes via his association with magical healing: “For Woden took nine glory-twigs, he smote then the adder that it flew apart into nine parts. Now these nine herbs have power against nine evil spirits, against nine poisons and against nine infections…” Scholars such as Godfrid Storms argue that the nine glory-twigs referred to are the runes.
The charm is difficult to translate and interpret, with corruptions in the text and missing words. It has also had Christian elements added, possibly by the monks who transcribed it. As Michael D. J. Bintley argues, “…Anglo-Saxon Christians were encouraged to think of the role of sacred trees, posts and rods in the religion of their heathen forbears as precursors to the cross of Christ.” The Nine Herbs Charm goes on to conflate Woden with Christ, who “stood over diseases of every kind.” This Woden/Christ figure is invoked as the “hanging lord,” which is consistent with Odin’s self-sacrifice on Yggdrasil.**
Of course, the evidence we have is very murky, so this interpretation is speculative—but it does provide intriguing possibilities when thinking about Woden’s relationship with the ash tree in Anglo-Saxon religion. Click the link to read more about Woden and his place in English folklore!
Ash Trees Today
You can identify ash trees by their three-six opposite pairs of light green, oval leaflets and singular “terminal” leaflet at the end. These fall when they’re still green, but you can identify ash in winter by its black buds (sometimes people think these look like boxing gloves).
Ash is dioecious (its purple male and female flowers grow on different trees, except that sometimes male and female flowers might grow on different branches of the same tree). The female flowers develop winged fruits (“keys”) once pollinated and they’re great for wildlife! Bullfinches in particular love the seeds.
According to the Woodland Trust, ash trees provide optimum conditions for wild flowers such as dog violet, wild garlic and dog’s mercury, which “support a range of insects such as the rare and threatened high brown fritillary butterfly.” You’ll also find woodpeckers, owls, redstarts and nuthatches nesting in ash trees, as well as deadwood specialists like the lesser stag beetle, lichens and mosses. Their leaves feed the caterpillars of moths like the coronet, brick, centre-barred sallow and privet hawk-moth.
In woodlands, you’ll often see a hazel understorey under the ash, which makes a great habitat for hazel dormice!
Ash is also important in British transport history: the Morgan Motor Company still uses ash for its body frames.
Our Ash Trees
Unfortunately, ash has declined in the UK and we haven’t planted any in our native woodland due to the problems of ash dieback. This is a shame, because according to landscape historian W. G. Hoskins, ash and elm were once known as the “great trees of the midlands.”
The Ash Rune Aesc
The good news is that we do have ash trees around the wildlife pond we created. These trees were planted in the 1990s, when ash trees were still widely available and several more have self-seeded since then. Hopefully these survive and continue to represent Woden in today’s England!
In our next post, learn about the oak tree and its possible connection to Thunor, the thunder god!
Find Out More
If you’d like to learn more about the history of medieval England, take a look at our intellectual and cultural history course, The Medieval Period—or our course, Culture and Conservation, in which you can explore the links between culture and wildlife all over the world. Alternatively, if you’re interested in religion and folklore, take a look at our Anthropology or Religious Studies courses.
These courses are templates of possible routes of study and can be combined, adapted, or designed from scratch to suit your interests and goals. Dr. Orton will work with you to design a course of private tutorials tailored to your needs, ability and schedule – whether you are undertaking your own research for an independent project, writing a book or simply have a personal interest. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her.
Dr. Orton also explores seasonal links with Anglo-Saxon paganism in her post about the pagan festival of yule.
Contact us to find out more!
Do More
For those who would like to take action to preserve our wild spaces, there’s plenty you can do. Find out how we started our wildflower meadow, how we created a wildlife pond and how we are planting a native woodland from scratch! Even if you don’t have a big garden, there are plenty of things you can do to help biodiversity in your area. Why not put up a solitary bee nesting box or insect home, create a woodpile as a habitat for small creatures or leave small areas of your garden to go wild?
You can also support the Woodland Trust’s work to stop ash dieback.
Think about your own area and how you can protect vulnerable but important parts of your own environment. You might even want to start your own project investigating the cultural importance of wildlife in your area. Dr. Orton works with independent scholars undertaking their own research for an independent project, people writing a book or simply those who have a personal interest. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to get started!
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* The first post in this series serves as a caveat for the historical claims in the following posts, as well as the use of certain terminology (“Anglo-Saxon” and “native”).
** Ronald Hutton agrees that it is possible that Woden is the “hanging lord,” although he says that, long before the time that this charm was written, Woden “had been brought into the English Christian tradition as a mortal man, a descendent of Noah who appears in royal genealogies.”
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