Yggdrasil Tree Had To Suffer the Pain None Could Tolerate

Yggdrasil was the Great Tree of Life in Norse mythology. It was the giant tree that held the Nine Worlds within its branches from the beginning of the cosmos. On the top of the tree was Asgard Land of Gods and the roots belonged to the Helheim land of the Dead. From the beginning toward the end of Norse mythology, Yggdrasil had to suffer from numerous pains that no one could ever tolerate. It was brought about by the end of the animals dwelling along the Tree. 

A stag and a goat eating the leaves from above

The stag was Eikthyrnir and the goat was Heidrun. Both of them lived just above the roof of Valhalla. Up there they ate the leaves from Yggdrasil tree for survival. With the leaves, Heidrun produced the mead for the fallen warriors dwelling inside Valhalla. The water from the horn of Eikthyrnir kept the warriors and many other creatures below alive. 

It is true that the leaves of Yggdrasil provided the stag and the goat with a source of living. And these two animals kept the warriors alive as well. But they were torturing the Ash tree with every bite they left on the leaves.

A hawk breaking branches from the top branches

The famous hawk from Norse mythology should be Vedfoldnir. 

Legend had it that Vedfoldnir was a hawk that sat in the eye of an unnamed eagle. The reason why Vedfoldnir was named in this list was that he kept breaking and throwing the tree branches down to the root where lay his sworn enemy. 

Four stags eating along the trunk of the Tree

Other obscure figures should be the four stags. Their names were Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór. Some scholars believed that four stags presented four cardinal directions in nature. Like Eikthryrnir and Heidrun, they consumed the leaves of Yggdrasil for survival. The four stags dwelled somewhere on the tree trunks.

Four stags in Norse mythology

A dragon gnawing at the root

Nidhogg was the name of the dragon that dwelled under the root of Yggdrasil. Nidhogg must be the animal figure that hated Yggdrasil Tree the most. 

Some sources mentioned that Nidhogg wanted to make the Ash tree collapse so that it would crash on his sworn enemy - Vedfoldnir. While Vedfoldnir kept throwing branches to the roots of Yggdrasil to kill Nidhogg, the Nidhogg dragon down there gnawed at the roots of Yggdrasil with a view to make it collapse someday. 

But Nidhogg failed all the time. Even when Ragnarok broke on the sky, Yggdrasil only trembled a little bit. The tree survived the Doomsday of Gods. 

Nidhogg gnawing at the roots of Yggdrasil to make it collapse