Can anyone help me figure out the origin of this Celtic world/life tree symbol? As I understand, the general concept exists in a lot of Celtic artwork, but is this particular design traditional or a recent addition? If recent, any idea who designed it? It’s also used on this page, for what it’s worth.
I’ve never encounterd that icon. When I think of the World Tree, I do not think Celtic, but rather Yggdrasil of Norse mythology.
I cannot find your icon at www.symbols.com although there are quite a few web sites that feature it (with little to no information, of course).
I get the feeling that this is a recent design. There is, indeed, a Tree of Life motif that appears both in Ireland and in the region of England closest to the Scots, but my memory of that image is that its trunk springs from a container and that its branches are generally filled with birds and/or fruit (as found in the last images on this page).
The symbol shown in your links looks much more (to me) like Yggsdrasil. I have seen two references to that image appearing in The Book of Kells, but each reference was a bit garbled, so I do not know that the authors knew what they were talking about. (To my untrained eye, the style differs significantly from the style of The Book of Kells.)
Of course, one good reference showing that image on a 1200 year old document would blow my reservations to smithereens.
If you use Google to search on “Y Goeden Bywyd” you’ll get several hits that mention the Book of Kells. From what I gather, (if the authors of the web pages–who all copied from a single source–are correct), this image was found in the marginalia of the Book of Kells. If so, it is not going to have a great history, as the marginalia were not intended to be the focus of attention.
As a Celtic-Studies scholar, I do not recognize this as a Celtic symbol per se. That said, we did not cover all symbols and art forms in our university course. I’d have to agree with ** tomndebb ** and say that to me it definately looks Norse.
As an aside, it also reminds me of something from the “Lord of the Rings” - as we know JJR Tolkien was heavily influenced by Norse mythology…
Anyhoo, just my 2 cents…
I agree that this looks like a recent design ‘in the style of.’ I’m pretty familiar with the Book of Kells and while I don’t have a facsimile the style does not look correct for it. The 20th century take on “celtic design” is a pretty standardized conventional style that has a bit in common with old hiberno-saxon design but is not identical with it.
Sorry, I don’t have much more to add but I will back up what others have said.
I have seen the book of Kells in person and I’ve studied Irish knotwork for some time. I agree with tarantula and tomndeb in that it looks like it’s a modern illustration that’s got 2 or more elements pulled from Irish and Norse sources. It almost looks like it was produced with a graphics program, as it’s very balanced. Where did this design come from? My guess would be a graphic designer put it together using some sourcebook like this book by George Bain. That’s what I’ve done myself for several clients.
It’s a doodle with pretension.
Thanks everyone! Did a bit more research using the cites in this thread - turns out it is indeed a modern creation, specifically by the Welsh artist Jen Delyth.