The Blessings of Nature

Background
"I've agreed to help Danica Pure-Spring repair the Gildergreen, the large tree outside the Temple of Kynareth in Whiterun."

Walkthrough
Danica laments the fact that the Gildergreen tree (a sapling of the Eldergleam) is in a poor state. She claims that the sap of the parent tree will revive it. In order to activate the quest, the player will have to talk to Danica when she is near the tree, or inside the Temple of Kynareth

Orphan Rock
She asks the Dragonborn to travel to Orphan Rock in search of a mystical weapon that is said to be able to harm the Eldergleam. This mystical weapon, Nettlebane, is required to gather the Eldergleam's sap. A coven of witches and a Hagraven hold the blade at Orphan Rock.

Once retrieved, the blade needs to be brought to Danica Pure-Spring. She will claim not to want to touch the foul thing and instead requests that the player go gather the sap. At that point a pilgrim named Maurice Jondrelle mentions his desire to also travel to the Eldergleam Sanctuary. The Dragonborn can either accept him as a travelling companion or decline.

Eldergleam Sanctuary
Once at the Eldergleam Sanctuary you encounter two other pilgrims and the Eldergleam's roots blocking your path to its main trunk. There are two methods to completing the quest.


 * Slashing the roots with Nettlebane will cause them to move out of the player's way. There is no other way around them. You then can proceed to the tree and gather the sap. This will cause four spriggans to be summoned. They will attack everyone in the sanctuary (even pilgrims).


 * If you brought Maurice Jondrelle with you he will protest once you cut the roots. You can continue and gather the sap or you can listen to his alternate plan. He then prays to the tree and it grants a new sapling. This spares the player the fight with the spriggans.

Completing the Quest
The Dragonborn can then take the sap (or sapling) back to Danica Pure-Spring to complete the quest. The tree will bloom shortly afterwards.
 * It is possible that if the player chose the sapling, the tree in Whiterun will not display correctly, with the sapling model inside the model of the old, dead tree. To address this, open the console, click on the trunk of the old tree and type MarkForDelete. Save your game, then reload, and the old tree should be removed with only the sapling visible.

Rewards

 * Danica Pure-Spring offers the Dragonborn Master-level training in Restoration upon completing "The Blessing of Nature". Additionally, the Nettlebane no longer remains flagged as a quest item and can be enchanted at an Arcane Enchanter.
 * Completing this quest may cause Ardwen to appear.

Notable Loot

 * There is a chest and a corundum vein at the far north-east part of the cave on top of a raised area.
 * Bringing Danica Pure-Spring the Eldergleam sap will allow you to take certain items in the Temple of Kynareth.
 * All the Spriggans may have Spriggan Sap, which is an expensive ingredient.
 * Book of Mystery of Talara, v 2 is located leaning up against the stone that Asta is sitting on. Head west as soon as you come up the walkway past the guy that greets you.
 * There is a chest at the western wall near Eldergleam, behind a root. Using Nettlebane on the root doesn't carry any consequences, even after Maurice asked you to stop hurting the tree.

Trivia

 * There does not seem to be any benefits and/or long term repercussions from completing the quest by either gathering the sap and defeating the spriggans or by bringing Maurice Jondrelle and retrieving the new sapling.
 * If you are intent on completing this quest by bringing Maurice Jondrelle to the Eldergleam Sanctuary you may find that keeping him alive on your trek is quite difficult. Maurice has no weapons or armor of any kind and it is not possible to equip him with items from your inventory (as you are able to with other companions, though if an enemy is defeated he may pick up their weapon). At the first sign of trouble, Maurice will sprint into action and attempt to defeat any enemies encountered using just his fists. This will almost certainly result in his immediate demise. It is advised you discover the location of the Eldergleam Sanctuary first before accepting this quest from Danica Pure-Spring. Upon accepting the quest and agreeing to escort Maurice to the sanctuary, simply fast travel to the Eldergleam Sanctuary and proceed inside.


 * The hagraven at orphan rock can easily be dispatched with a well aimed unrelenting force, killing the hagraven with fall damage and making the fight significantly easier for players at lower levels. Please note that if you do kill her this way you have to follow her body because it has Nettlebane on it, making it possible to lose her body in the forest. Another way to dispatch the Hagraven is with Conjure Flame Atronach spell, since the Hagraven chooses Fireball and that the Atronach itself, is unaffected by spells of its molecular structure. If you are good with the bow and arrow, you could take out the hagraven and all the Hags from atop a ledge nearby.

Bugs

 * It is possible that completing the quest by bringing Danica the sapling instead of the sap will result in a graphical glitch where the old tree will remain even though the sapling has been planted, so the tree will continue to appear dead and have a small crown of flowering branches showing through just above the main trunk.
 * FIX: Walk up close to the tree, open your console, click the tree in the background and type "markfordelete", when you click it again it should have a [D] behind the number. If not, try again. Fasttravel somewhere and upon return the dead tree will have vanished, revealing a young Gildergreen. If the young Gildergreen is not present, open your console, type "prid 46284" (without quotes), hit enter, then type "enable".
 * It is possible to walk through the opening near the tree and roam around the unfinished world. Although, if you cross into the void the game will crash.