How to arrange a myth and a fairy tale

An example of designing a myth for a school project. The myth about the World Tree (arbor mundi, “cosmic” tree), an image characteristic of mythopoetic consciousness, embodying the universal concept of the world. The image of the World Tree is attested almost everywhere, either in its pure form, or in variants (often with an emphasis on one or another particular function) – “tree of life”, “tree of fertility”, “tree of the center”, “tree of ascension”, “heavenly tree”, “shaman tree”, “mystical tree”, “tree of knowledge”, etc.; more rare options: “tree of death”, “tree of evil”, “tree of the underworld (lower world)”, “tree of descent”. With the help of the World Tree in all its variety of cultural and historical variants [including its transformations or isofunctional images such as “axis of the world” (axis mundi), “world pillar”, “world mountain”, “world man” (“first man”) , temple, triumphal arch, column, obelisk, throne, ladder, cross, chain, etc.] bring together the general binary semantic oppositions that serve to describe the main parameters of the world. The image of the World Tree is revealed or reconstructed on the basis of mythological, in particular cosmological representations recorded in verbal texts of various genres, monuments of fine arts (painting, ornament, sculpture, glyptics, embroidery, etc.), architectural structures (primarily religious), utensils in the broad sense of the word, ritual actions, etc. Directly or indirectly, the image of the World Tree is restored for various traditions ranging from the Bronze Age (in Europe and the Middle East) to the present [cf. autochthonous Siberian, American (Indian), African, Australian traditions].