Editing Yggdrasil (section)

====''Hávamál''====
[[File:The Sacrifice of Odin by Frølich (vector).svg|thumb|Odin sacrificing himself upon Yggdrasil (1895) by [[Lorenz Frølich]]]]
In stanza 138 of the poem ''[[Hávamál]]'', Odin describes how he once sacrificed himself to himself by hanging on a tree. The stanza reads:

{{blockquote|<poem>
I know that I hung on a windy tree
[[numbers in Norse mythology|nine]] long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.{{sfn|Larrington|1999|p=34}}
</poem>}}

In the stanza that follows, Odin describes how he had no food nor drink there, that he peered downward, and that "I took up the [[runes]], screaming I took them, then I fell back from there."{{sfn|Larrington|1999|p=34}} Odin later used "the knowledge of the sacred runes" as a magical tool to give to humanity to increase humans' skill in magic and poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Carlson |first1=Kathie |title=The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images |last2=Flanagin |first2=Michael N. |last3=Martin |first3=Kathleen |last4=Martin |first4=Mary E. |last5=Mendelsohn |first5=John |last6=Rodgers |first6=Priscilla Young |last7=Ronnberg |first7=Ami |last8=Salman |first8=Sherry |last9=Wesley |first9=Deborah A. |publisher=[[Taschen]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-8365-1448-4 |editor-last=Arm |editor-first=Karen |location=Köln |page=494 |editor-last2=Ueda |editor-first2=Kako |editor-last3=Thulin |editor-first3=Anne |editor-last4=Langerak |editor-first4=Allison |editor-last5=Kiley |editor-first5=Timothy Gus |editor-last6=Wolff |editor-first6=Mary}}</ref>

While Yggdrasil is not mentioned by name in the poem and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree is near universally accepted as Yggdrasil by scholars, and if the tree is Yggdrasil, then the name ''Yggdrasil'' directly relates to this story.{{sfn|Lindow|2001|p=321}}