World of Myth

Domain: The Norns watch over and weave destiny and the fate of men (and gods).

Type of Being: Spirits named Urd (Past), Verdandi (Present), and Skuld (Future)

Powers: Measuring and controlling time, monitoring the fate of humans

Place: Around the base of Yggdrasil by the Urdarbrunn (Well of Urd). Some versions have the Norns exiting a hall; other tellings have them emerging from a lake at the beginning of time.

Associated Animals:  Swans and spiders (the Norns can appear as spinners)

Appearance: Usually maidens, Skuld is sometimes depicted as veiled

Significant Items: Thread

Primary Texts: Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda, Voluspa in the Poetic Edda

The Norns (Nornir) are 3 spirits of destiny:

Urd – That Which Has Happened, Fate, Past

Verdandi – That Which Is Happening, Present, Becoming

Skuld – That Which Shall Happen, Future, Obligation

– Norse Mythology A to Z, Kathleen N. Daly

–The Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson

The Norns at Yggadrasil

There stands a beautiful hall near the fountain beneath the ash. Out of it come three maids, whose names are Urd, Verdande and Skuld. These maids shape the lives of men, and we call them norns. There are yet more norns, namely those who come to every man when he is born, to shape his life, and these are known to be of the race of gods; others, on the other hand, are of the race of elves, and yet others are of the race of dwarfs. As is here said:

Far asunder, I think,
The norns are born,
They are not of the same race.
Some are of the asas,
Some are of the elves,
Some are daughters of Dvalin.

Then said Ganglere: If the norns rule the fortunes of men, then they deal them out exceedingly unevenly. Some live a good life and are rich; some get neither wealth nor praise. Some have a long, others a short life. Har answered: Good norns and of good descent shape good lives, and when some men are weighed down with misfortune, the evil norns are the cause of it.

–Sturluson, Snorri. The Younger Edda; Also Called Snorre’s Edda, or The Prose Edda.

The Norns are more personifications of ideas than stand-alone deities with distinct personalities (like Odin). They are usually at the periphery of stories, serving to offer guidance to the hero as opposed to being the heroes (heroines) themselves.

They are often viewed as an example of the “Triple Goddess”, an archetypal grouping of deities. Ideas of the triple goddess are not settled in scholarship and considered by some to be spurious. The recording of Norse mythology by medieval Christian monks makes it difficult to discern the true nature of the Norns separate from the Greek Moirai or Roman Parcae (who would have been well known by the monks recording the Norse mythology).