Having fixed this knowledge in his formidable memory, Odin ended his ordeal with a scream of exultation. At the end of the ninth night, he at last perceived shapes in the depths: the runes! They had accepted his sacrifice and shown themselves to him, revealing to him not only their forms, but also the secrets that lie within them. He survived in this state, teetering on the precipice that separates the living from the dead, for no less than nine days and nights. And he stared downward, and stared downward, and called to the runes. He forbade any of the other gods to grant him the slightest aid, not even a sip of water.

Since the runes’ native home is in the Well of Urd with the Norns, and since the runes do not reveal themselves to any but those who prove themselves worthy of such fearful insights and abilities, Odin hung himself from a branch of Yggdrasil, pierced himself with his spear, and peered downward into the shadowy waters below. And he bent his will toward the task of coming to know the runes. Odin watched the Norns from his seat in Asgard and envied their powers and their wisdom. The symbols then carry these intentions throughout the tree, affecting everything in the Nine Worlds. One of the foremost techniques they use to shape fate is carving runes into Yggdrasil’s trunk. Among these beings are the Norns, three sagacious maidens who create the fates of all beings.

Yggdrasil grows out of the Well of Urd, a pool whose fathomless depths hold many of the most powerful forces and beings in the cosmos. Yggdrasil’s upper branches cradle Asgard, the home and fortress of the Aesir gods and goddesses, of whom Odin is the chief. At the center of the Norse cosmos stands the great tree Yggdrasil.

Elder futhark rune