This chapter has been one of the craziest if not the craziest. It’s a well known fact that Isayama took a lot of inspiration from Norse mythology with the titans and Ymir, and in this chapter we see a tree that seems to be referencing Yggdrasil, or the “tree of life”.
Yggdrasil connects the nine worlds/realms, which is unmistakably similar to how the paths connect the nine titan shifters. The center of the path world also resembles a tree.
When Ymir falls into this tree she turns into a titan. You’ll notice that in the outside world she grows older, but in the path realm she still has the body of the young girl she was when she first found the tree. It is as if her soul was trapped in the paths. This tree, I believe, is the way to access the paths through the outside world. The question is: does this tree still exist in Marley? It is possible that it was destroyed when Ymir transformed into a titan, which seems to be the most likely outcome, however we must keep in mind that this is not a normal tree and even if most of it was destroyed part of it might still exist. In the panel before the one with Ymir’s titan you see the tree falling over, but could the trunk still be there? Either way, i think we will definitely see more about this tree later.
Something else seen in this chapter is the strange spines. One in the tree and one connected to Eren.
The “spine” in the second image bears a resemblance to Nidhogg, a serpent in Norse mythology.
This is only one interpretation of Nidhogg, so it would be a stretch to say the two were connected based on appearance alone, so I did some research. Nidhogg is known for gnawing at the roots of Yggdrasil. A popular opinion is that the arrival or Nidhogg at the tree was a warning of the coming of Ragnarök. Before I get into Ragnarök I want to talk about the spine connected to Eren. I was a little confused about it at first, but my sister pointed out to me that it could be the beginning of him transforming into a titan. Perhaps he “fused” with Ymir kind of and turned into like a mega titan similar to Ymir’s titan. She was the first titan and was therefore a mixture of the nine different types, and she was huge and must have been incredibly powerful.
Now, on to Ragnarök. Ragnarök is basically a series of events in Norse mythology that results in the end of the world. It is a reasonable assumption that the rumbling is the Attack on Titan equivalent of Ragnarök. It is said that after Ragnarök there are two survivors who will repopulate the Earth, some believe that they survive because the seek shelter in Yggdrasil. I believe that these two survivors will be Eren and Historia, and then the baby shown in the last panel is Ymir who is finally free and can begin her life again without having to be a slave.
There are two more things I want to point out. In Norse mythology three women called the Norns sit at the bottom of Yggdrasil spinning the threads of fate (the Norns are basically the Norse equivalent of the Fates in Greek mythology), this is similar to how Ymir creates the titans out of sand near the tree in the path world.
Lastly I just want to show another few instances where trees may play a big part in the story and might be connected.
Here in the first episode, Eren has his dream/vision of the future while resting under a tree.
In the OVA Ilse’s notebook, the titan eats Ilse’s head and stores the rest of her body inside a tree.
That is all for now I hope you enjoyed this!
