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Iggdrasil

Finland. Latitude 64 00 N, Longitude 26 00 E

I have always been attracted by the nomadic culture. The itinerant, the changeable, is an unquenchable source of inspiration in my job. When I thought I knew about reality, my enthusiasm for the imaginary started. That was how I came to discover Iggdrasil, the Tree of Life in Nordic mythology, and the fantastic stories about the origins of the world.

According to Scandinavian tradition, in the middle of Midgard (middle earth) was Åsgard, and in the middle of Åsgard there was an immense ash tree, known as Iggdrasil, that had been planted by the gods. It was the biggest tree you could possibly imagine. One of its roots rested in Åsgard, another in Jotunheimen and the last in Niflheim. The branches of Iggdrasil were so long that they encompassed the whole world. It was the centre of the universe, the axis of the world, and while it remained green and luxuriant life would continue to exist. There were no myths about its creation, because the tree itself was the primordial fountain that sustained life: past, present and future all at the same time.

Legend tells that as the northern climes were very hard for the nomadic tribes, they decided to settle for a time on the coast. The Frost Giants punished them with dreadful storms, the trolls and evil spirits surrounded them and strange nameless monsters shipwrecked their boats. They were warrior tribes and they trusted their gods to protect them. They worshipped Odin, the Father of All Things, whose kingdom was formed by the Three Lands that contained the Worlds that arose from Iggdrasil.

Åsgard, the upper land, represented individuality and was inhabited by the gods. To get there, you had to cross the bridge of Bifrost (a rainbow). In its main hall, Valhalla, the Father of All Things, Odin, reigned along with the Mother of All Things, Frigg, and here the souls of warriors fallen in battle rested. It was the kingdom of memory and intellect, amongst many other qualities. Midgard, middle earth, had four kingdoms that represented the four points of the compass and the four elements. This is where humanity lived, our reality, the conscience that gave stability to the Worlds. To the north was the origin of water: the land of snow, a field of magnetism and contradiction, a zone of non-life in which nothing could survive. Its opposite was the kingdom of the South, the home of fire, where the sparks of life and all forms of positive energy sprang up. Between the North and the South was the equilibrium that permitted existence. To the West was the home of the Vanir, the gods of fertility, whose qualities are intuition and feelings. To the East lay Austri, the kingdom of the Giants, the cradle of logical thinking and evolution. The lower earth is the Underworld, towards which the three roots of Iggdrasil grow. This is the kingdom of the dead, the territory of the goddess Hel and the place where souls go to be reborn. From here, our ancestors sustain the living with their presence.

Under the spell of these stories, I decided to travel to the north, like the nomads, thinking about the new collection. I didn’t start off very well. I was coming back from the library in a little coastal village, laden with several books, when I slipped on the ice. The hospital waiting room was empty apart from me and a young lad or around eight —with his right arm in a sling— waiting with his mother. I noticed that no sooner had I sat down than he fixed his gaze on one of the books I had brought with me. It was a beautiful copy —with a fairy on the front cover— of “Edda”, the fantastical novel that Snorri Sturluson wrote in the 13th century. It spoke of giants, dwarfs and gods… in a wonderful metaphor of the human psyche and experience. I asked him in English if he knew it. But he didn’t understand me. His mother, a young sickly-looking woman, didn’t understand either. I looked towards the nurse at reception but her forbidding face dissuaded me from asking for help, so I opted for the international language: I held out the book towards him, smiling. He took it without saying a word. His eyes ran across the pages avidly, as if he understood them, but he couldn’t have understood a word as it was in English. I could imagine how much curiosity he must be feeling, and thought about doing a sketch to explain what the book was about. When I took out my notebook he looked at me fixedly and, for the first time, smiled. I took a few minutes to do the sketch. During this time, little by little, he crept closer to me almost imperceptibly. By the time I had finished he was by my side, looking at me with all the curiosity typical of his age contained in his huge black eyes. I gave the sketch to him. It wasn’t very good, but it clearly reflected the three lands of Iggdrasil and their inhabitants.

After looking at it for a few seconds, he asked me for the pen. Very slowly, with his left hand, he drew a man with just one leg and a boy with just one arm. Each of them on either side of the goddess Hel.