An Yggdrasil axe carries the world tree cut into the cheek of the head. Yggdrasil is the ash that holds the nine worlds together in Norse cosmology, with a serpent gnawing its root, an eagle in its branches and a squirrel carrying insults between the two. It is the single most useful image in the whole mythology, which is why it ends up on more steel than any other motif.
What the axes are
Bearded axes and double headed axes at around 18 to 19 inches overall, with a few larger patterns to 24 inches. Heads are plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC or Damascus of 1095 and 15N20, forge welded and acid etched, at 58 to 60 HRC. Hafts are rosewood, ash, birch and hardwood, wedged into a drifted eye. Each one ships with a leather blade cover. The engraving sits on the flat of the cheek where it is visible with the axe hung on a wall and out of the way of the cutting edge.
Getting the myth right
Yggdrasil is properly attested. It appears across the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda and it is not a modern invention, which cannot be said for every symbol sold under a Norse label. If you want to know what the sources actually say rather than what the internet has decided, the world tree article goes through the nine worlds and the creatures in the branches. For the wider question of which symbols are Viking Age and which are much later Icelandic inventions, the symbols guide separates them without hedging.
Using it or hanging it
These are working heads on real hafts, not cast display pieces, so an Yggdrasil axe will split kindling perfectly well if that is what you want from it. Most do not get used that way. Symbol engraving is 39 dollars if you want a second mark added elsewhere on the head. The axes are in the Viking axes and the bearded shapes specifically in the bearded axes.
What arrives
The head comes mounted and wedged on an oiled haft with a leather blade cover. Hafts are finished with oil rather than lacquer, so they can be sanded back and reoiled after a few years instead of peeling. Head weights vary slightly between pieces because the shaping is done by hand and not by a die.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
