green and fir trees grow, so far as the vault of heaven reaches.’  As Schnaase says,[6] though with some exaggeration, such formulae, in their summary survey of earth and sky, often give a complete landscape poem in a few words.  He points out that in northern, as opposed to classic mythology, Nature was considered, not in the cursory Hebrew way, that hurried over or missed detail, but as a whole, and in her relation to man’s inner life.

’The collective picture of heaven and earth, of cloud movement, of the mute life of plants—­that side of Nature which had almost escaped the eye of antiquity—­occupied the Northerner most of all.

’The Edda even represents all Nature together in one colossal form—­the form of the giant Ymir, whom the sons of Boer slew, in order to make the mountains from his bones, the earth from his flesh, the skies from his skull.’

A still grander mythical synthesis was the representation of the whole world under the form of the sacred ash tree Yggdrasil.  This was the world tree which united heaven, earth, and hell.  Its branches stretched across the world and reached up to the skies, and its roots spread in different directions—­one toward the race of Asa in heaven, another toward the Hrimthursen, the third toward the underworld; and on both roots and branches creatures lived and played—­eagle, squirrel, stag, and snake; while by the murmuring Urdhar stream, which rippled over one root, the Nones sat in judgment with the race of Asa.

Not less significant was the conception of the end of the world, the twilight of the gods (Goetterdaemmerung), according to which all the wicked powers broke loose and fought against the gods; the sun and moon were devoured by wolves, the stars fell and earth quaked, the monster world-serpent Joermungande, in giant rage, reared himself out of the water and came to land:  Loki led the Hrimthursen and the retinue of hell, and Surt, with his shining hair, rode away from the flaming earth across Bifroest, the rainbow, which broke beneath him.

After the world conflagration a new and better earth arose, with rejuvenated gods.[7]

German mediaeval poetry, as a whole, epic and lyric, was interwoven with a hazy network of suggestive myth and legend; and moral elements, which in mythology were hidden by the prominence of Nature, stood out clear to view in the fate and character of the heroes.  The germ of many of our fairy tales is a bit of purest poetry of Nature—­a genuine Nature myth transferred to human affairs, which lay nearer to the child-like popular mind, and were therefore more readily understood by it.

So, for instance, from the Maiden of the Shield, Sigrdrifa, who was pierced by Odin’s sleep thorn, and who originally represented the earth, frozen in winter, kissed awake by the sun-god, came Brunhild, whose mail Siegfried’s sword penetrated as the sun rays penetrate the frost, and lastly the King’s daughter, who pricked herself with the fateful spindle, and sank into deep sleep.  And as Sigrdrifa was surrounded by walls of flame, so now we have a thorny hedge of wild briar round the beautiful maiden (hence named Dornroeschen) when the lucky prince comes to waken her with a kiss.[8]