Original Painting: Oil on Wooden Panel

Size: 59 cm in Diameter Rotunda

This painting uses the the Trefoil or Valknut symbol, which is the impossible knot to tie. It is a metaphiscal symbol that describes how all living things are bound together and interdependant. The painting derives its name from the nordic sacred ash tree Yggdrasil, as the painting represents differing elemental states much like the ash tree itself which interlocks and binds all these states together. The valknut (coined from Old Norse valr, "slain warriors" and knut, "knot") is a symbol consisting of three interlocked triangles. It appears on a variety of objects from the archaeological record of the ancient Germanic peoples. The compound noun valknut is from the modern era. The term used for the symbol during its historical employment is unknown. Scholars have proposed a variety of explanations for the symbol, sometimes associating it with the god Odin, and it has been compared to the three-horned symbol found on the 9th-century Snoldelev Stone, to which it may be related.