Great man splitting tree with hatchet turned north (9)
I believe the answer is:
alexander
'great man' is the definition.
(Alexander the Great)
'splitting tree with hatchet turned north' is the wordplay.
'splitting' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters split a word into two).
'tree with' becomes 'alder' (alder is a kind of tree. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.).
'hatchet' becomes 'axe' (I've seen this before).
'turned' is a reversal indicator.
'north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'axe' reversed gives 'exa'.
'exa'+'n'='exan'
'alder' going around 'exan' is 'ALEXANDER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alexander that I've seen before include "Sandy" , "A Great king of old Macedon" , "Macedonian conqueror of Greece" , "Healing process based on improving posture" , "Band leader" .)