Detail of a memorial stone, dated from about A.D. 500, found during the restoration of a church at Sanda in Gotland. The tree at the center of it symbolizes the Viking concept of the universe.
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Image reproduced by courtesy of Gotlands Fornsal, Visby.

Midgard

In Norse mythology, Midgard is the Earth. It was created when the supreme god, Odin and his two brothers slayed a giant. The roots of the tree reach into the underworld and up into the land of the giants. Midgard is surrounded by the ocean where a giant snake lives.

Asgard, the home of the gods, was joined to the Earth by a bridge called Bifrost, symbolized by a rainbow. Odin, the supreme Norse god, is able to look down over all that he rules.

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