The great Ash tree Yggdrasil bound together Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Its top reached to Heaven, its branches covered the Earth, and the roots penetrated into Hell. The three Normas or Fates sat under it, spinning the thread of life. Of all the gods and goddesses of classical mythology or our own folk-lore, none were more fascinating than the Nature Spirits--Elves and Fairies, Neckans and Kelpies, Pixies and Ouphes, Mermaids, Undines, Water Spirits, and all the Elfin world Which have their haunts in dale and piny mountain, Or forests, by slow stream or tingling brook. They come out, as we are told, especially on moonlight nights. But while evening thus clothes many a scene with poetry, forests are fairy land all day long. Almost any wood contains many and many a spot well suited for Fairy feasts; where one might most expect to find Titania, resting, as once we are told, She lay upon a bank, the favourite haunt Of the Spring wind in its first sunshine hour, For the luxuriant strawberry blossoms spread Like a snow shower then, and violets Bowed down their purple vases of perfume About her pillow,--linked in a gay band Floated fantastic shapes; these were her guards, Her lithe and rainbow elves. The fairies have disappeared, and, so far as England is concerned, the larger forest animals have vanished almost as completely. The Elk and Bear, the Boar and Wolf have gone, the Stag has nearly disappeared, and but a scanty remnant of the original wild Cattle linger on at Chillingham. Still the woods teem with life; the Fox and Badger, Stoat and Weasel, Hare and Rabbit, and Hedgehog, The tawny squirrel vaulting through the boughs, Hawk, buzzard, jay, the mavis and the merle,[26] the Owls and Nightjar, the Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Magpie, Doves, and a hundred more. In early spring the woods are bright with the feathery catkins of the Willow, followed by the soft green of the Beech, the white or pink flowers of the Thorn, the pyramids of the Horse-chestnut, festoons of the Laburnum and Acacia, and the Oak slowly wakes from its winter sleep, while the Ash leaves long linger in their black buds. Under foot is a carpet of flowers--Anemones, Cowslips, Primroses, Bluebells, and the golden blossoms of the Broom, which, however, while Gorse and Heather continue in bloom for months, "blazes for a week or two, and is then completely extinguished, like a fire that has burnt itself out."[27] In summer the tints grow darker, the birds are more numerous and full of life; the air teems with insects, with the busy murmur of bees and the idle hum of flies, while the cool of morning and evening, and the heat of the day, are all alike delicious.