Magin Rose

Norns by HLM, 1901

The Norns (or Nornir as they would have been called) are three extremely powerful and important figures within the Germanic northern tradition (the tradition from which languages including German, English, Dutch, Norwegian and Icelandic come).  Without them there is no time, no story, no evolution, no destiny.  In some ways their arrival in the cosmos caused ambivalence among the Gods as it ended the carefree, timeless, golden age; but the stories tell us that their coming was inevitable, they are the inevitable.

The Nornir are often likened to the three Fates, the Moraie of ancient Greece or Roman Parcae.  Three women sit and spin the threads of fate, they weave the tapestry of being, they cut the threads at the end of each life.  Certainly the Nornir are weavers, but so are the Valkyrie, the choosers of the slain; and, indeed, Skuld, the youngest of the Nornir ia also said to be a Valkyrie.  Like the Fates, the Nornir are also spinners, but so is Frigga, the Queen of the Gods who, it is said, has primary responsibility for spinning the threads which the Nornir then use.  It is also true that the Nornir take an interest in the lives of individual men and women, in fact, a whole entourage of lesser nornir are described as being guardian spirits who attach themselves to particular individuals at birth, bringing gifts for both good and for ill ( a bit like bad and good fairy godmothers).  However, this is also a shared role as the Gods also come to the Well of Wyrd where the Nornir reside to sit and debate the fates of men, perhaps subtly plotting to influence their own fates by dabbling in the Wyrd of man - even the Gods themselves are subject to the laws off the Nornir.

Where the Nornir really come into their own is not so much as spinners, but as law-makers, writers of the inevitable, guardians of the Well of Wyrd: the substance of time and destiny, the waters of the past from which the threads of the present rise.

At StarFire Alchemy the Nornir are regular visitors to our Circles and have also helped shape and weave some of our key courses including shamanic regression, cord cutting and rune casting.  All of these techniques deal with a reading of, and interaction with, the stories of the past and the flow of our Wyrd.  Who better for our students to work with and journey to for wisdom, protection and guidance than the guardians of Wyrd itself?

•  About the Well of Wyrd
• The First Norn – Urd/ Urðr/ Wyrd/ ‘that which was’
• The Second Norn – Verðandi/ Werthende/ ’that which is’
• The third Norn – Skuld/ Sculd/ ‘that which must be’

About the Well of Wyrd

The Well of Wyrd is also known as Urðarbrunnr, Urd’s Well, or the well of that which was.  It is one of three wells found at the root of the great world tree Yggdrasil,  the others being Hvergelmir (bubbling/ boiling spring) and Mimmisbrunnr (Mimir’s well); Hvergelmir is the primal well from which the first waters flowed, while Mimir’s well is a place where knowledge and foresight may be obtained.  You can see that all three of these wells are, in some way, a manifestation of the idea of origins and the unfolding of time.  

The Nornir dwell by the Well of Wyrd and are said to have a shining hall there, they are often depicted as three cloaked figures, almost indistinguishable from each other.  Each day the Gods cross over the rainbow bridge and gather at the Well to debate and cast judgements, testifying to the Well’s importance as a place of truth and source of law.  Any beings who bathe within the Well of Wyrd are said to emerge shinig white, like the membrane of an egg; and a pair of swans (said to be the ancestors of all other swans), are said to feed at the well each day.  Interestingly, some accounts state that Munnin, one of Odin’s ravens, is pure white – Munnin is the raven of memory and, perhaps, he too drinks at the Well.

It is said that the Nornir gather white clay from the edges of the Well and smooth it upon the bark of the World Tree to keep it strong and healthy.  In this sense the waters of the past are seen as strengthening and healing the present.  As a healer this makes a great deal of sense to me, it is through self acceptance that we come to love ourselves and through acceptance of the truth about ourselves and the world we live in that we gain wisdom. Healing cannot occur when we live in falsehood or deny the past which has made us who we are. 

Urd

Urd’s name has been translated as ‘that which was’, ‘the past’ or ’origin’; it is the past tense of the Old Norse verb for ‘to become’. Urd is often seen as being the oldest of the Nornir although, as I said above, for others the three Nornir appear as women of the same age with similar faces and builds.  As the Norn concerned with the past Urd is often seen working at the Well of Wyrd itself; some say she washes the threads of Wyrd within the Well but, for me, she is drawing fibres of being from the Well itself.    To me Urd appears as a wise, round faced woman wearing sensible clothing; she is the Norn who speaks the most frequently – perhaps because, as the keeper of the past, she has the most to say. Over time she has taken on the aspect of  wise ‘crone’, echoing the ‘maiden, mother, crone’ archetype of modern witchcraft.

Urd is a force to be reckoned with, she tells it like it is and does not suffer fools gladly.  Although the Nornir are harbingers of Fate and might be thought not to take sides, at the final battle between the Gods and their enemies Urd will come forth from the Well armed and ready for action – perhaps to bear witness, or perhaps to ensure that the outcome of the battle is played out to her liking.

Verðandi

Verðandi is said to select the threads and weave them together into the great tapestry of being, her name has been translated as ‘happening’, ‘present’, ‘becoming’, ‘in the making’ and ‘that which is’; it is the present tense of the Old Norse verb ‘to become’.  Each person has their own tapestry, their own past and their own destiny to fulfill, but each of these is woven into the greater whole, intersecting and interweaving in a myriad of patterns and colours.  When I visit the Well of Wyrd Verðandi is always busy, her hands continually working the thread.  To me she embodies the principle of mindfulness: always intent upon the present moment, not weighed down by the past or caught up in fantasies of the future; she is at peace in herself and in her work.

Verðandi is often equated with the energy of the ‘mother’ and, as Urd might be said to hold the wisdom of the crone, Verðandi does indeed resonate with the mother, continually birthing the present and bring it into form as her hands work across the loom.  Verðandi often appears to me with a full figure and luxurious golden hair, her nature is gentle and she will not speak unless she has something particularly important to say.

Norns weaving by Arthur Rackham (1912)

Skuld

Skuld is often depicted as the youngest of the Nornir, she is a Valkyrie, a warrior maiden and is often considered to be the most frightening of the three.  Her name has been translated as ‘debt’, ‘necessity’, ‘that which must be’, or ‘future’.  In some ways her function might be said to be the upholding of karmic law - except that this implies an inherent fairness to her actions when, in fact, she might be described more as ensuring the patterns woven into the fabric of the present play out as they must.

Skuld is often seen carrying a knife ready to the cut the threads at the end of a lifetime but, for me, a far more important function of Skuld is as the overseer of the knots within the tapestry of Wyrd.  The idea of oath making is hugely important within the northern tradition, an oath made must be fulifilled, to not do so is to damaging both to your own Wyrd and the greater tapestry as a whole.  Imagine that two threads are knotted together withina cloth to begin a new pattern, then the weaver forgets about the knot and leaves these threads hanging: the tapestry will either end up tangled up in itself, or with gaping holes where the threads should have been.  Skuld’s rune is the Nauthiz rune, the rune of need, to me it follows on from the promises made by the Gebo rune of exchange. oathmaking and gifting - at some point those promises are tested and the knot is pulled taut (have a look at the shapes of the runes to see what I mean).  Skuld is the tester, she makes sure the tapestry is strong and that its pattern runs true.

I said earlier that Skuld was a Valkyrie.  These terrifying women were maidens of battle, choosers of the slain who would bring fallen warriors to Odin’s hall where they would join his army ready for the final battle.    In this sense Skuld selects the brightest threads, the finest heroes for this special purpose – like her sister Urd she is perhaps not so neutral in the affairs of the cosmos as we might believe.  In her role as a Valkyrie Skuld bears a shield and wears a shining helmet and cloak of swan feathers.

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