Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór

In Norse mythology, four stags or harts (male red deer) eat among the branches of the world tree Yggdrasill.

The poem Grímnismál, a part of the Poetic Edda, is the only extant piece of Old Norse poetry to mention the stags.

[9][10][11] In the Gylfaginning part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the stanza from Grímnismál is summarized.

Richard Cleasby and Guðbrandur Vigfússon surmised that Snorri had used the word wrongly due to Icelandic unfamiliarity with trees.

More recent opinion is that barr means foliage in general and that the conifer assumption is not warranted.

[16] Early suggestions for interpretations of the stags included connecting them with the four elements, the four seasons, or the phases of the moon.

This drawing made by a 17th-century Icelander shows the four stags on the World Tree. Neither deer nor ash trees are native to Iceland.
Sky as branches of Yggdrasill: compare how patterns of cirrus clouds may resemble branches of an ash tree
European ash tree