THE NORNS.
The Northern goddesses of fate, who were called Norns, were in nowise
subject to the other gods, who could neither question nor influence
their decrees. They were three sisters, probably descendants of the
giant Norvi, from whom sprang Nott (night). As soon as the Golden Age
was ended, and sin began to steal even into the heavenly homes of
Asgard, the Norns made their appearance under the great ash Yggdrasil,
and took up their abode near the Urdar fountain. According to some
mythologists, their purpose in coming thus was to warn the gods of
future evil, to bid them make good use of the present, and to teach
them wholesome lessons from the past.
These three sisters, whose names were Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, were
personifications of the past, present, and future. Their principal
occupation was to weave the web of fate; daily to sprinkle the sacred
tree with water from the Urdar fountain, and to put fresh clay around
its roots, that it might remain fresh and ever green.
“Thence come the maids
Who much do know;
Three from the hall
Beneath the tree;
One they named _Was_,
And _Being_ next,
The third _Shall be_.”
THE VÖLUSPÁ (Henderson’s tr.).
Some authorities further state that the Norns kept watch over the
golden apples which hung on the branches of the tree of life,
experience, and knowledge, allowing none but Idun to pick the fruit,
which had the power of renewing the gods’ youth.
The Norns also fed and tenderly cared for the two swans swimming over
the mirror-like surface of the Urdar fountain, and from this pair of
birds all the swans on earth are supposed to be descended. At times,
it is said, the Norns themselves adopted the swan plumage to visit the
earth, or sported like mermaids along the coast and in various lakes
and rivers, appearing to mortals, from time to time, to foretell the
future or give them valuable advice.
[Sidenote: Their weaving.]
The Norns sometimes wove such large webs that one of the weavers stood
on a high mountain in the extreme east, while another waded far out
into the western sea. The threads of their woof resembled cords, and
varied greatly in hue, according to the nature of the events about to
occur, and a black thread, tending from north to south, was invariably
considered an omen of death. As these sisters flashed the shuttle to
and fro, they chanted a solemn song. They seemed not to weave according
to their own wishes, but blindly, as if reluctantly executing the
wishes of Orlog, the eternal law of the universe, an older and superior
power, who apparently had neither beginning nor end.
Two of the Norns, Urd and Verdandi, seemed very beneficent indeed,
while the third relentlessly undid their work, and often, when it was
nearly finished, tore it angrily to shreds, scattering the remnants
to the winds of heaven. As personifications of time, the Norns were
represented as sisters of different ages and characters, Urd (Wurd,
weird) appearing very old and decrepit, continually looking backward,
as if absorbed in contemplating past events and people; Verdandi, the
second sister, young, active, and fearless, looked straight before
her, while Skuld, the type of the future, was generally represented as
closely veiled, with head turned in the opposite direction from that
where Urd was gazing, and holding a book or scroll which had not yet
been opened or unrolled.
These Norns were daily visited by the gods, who loved to consult them;
and even Odin himself frequently rode down to the Urdar fountain to
bespeak their aid, for they generally answered all his questions,
maintaining silence only about his own fate and that of his fellow gods.
“Rode he long and rode he fast.
First beneath the great Life Tree,
At the sacred Spring sought he
Urdar, Norna of the Past;
But her backward seeing eye
Could no knowledge now supply.
Across Verdandi’s page there fell
Dark shades that ever woes foretell;
The shadows which ’round Asgard hung
Their baleful darkness o’er it flung;
The secret was not written there
Might save Valhal, the pure and fair.
Last youngest of the sisters three,
Skuld, Norna of Futurity,
Implored to speak, stood silent by,--
Averted was her tearful eye.”
VALHALLA (J. C. Jones).
[Sidenote: Other guardian spirits.]
Besides these three principal Norns there were many others, far less
important, who seem to have been the guardian spirits of mankind, to
whom they frequently appeared, lavishing all manner of gifts upon their
favorites, and seldom failing to be present at births, marriages, and
deaths.
“Oh, manifold is their kindred, and who shall tell them all?
There are they that rule o’er men folk, and the stars that
rise and fall:
* * * * *
They love and withhold their helping, they hate and refrain the blow;
They curse and they may not sunder, they bless and they shall not
blend;
They have fashioned the good and the evil, they abide the change
and the end.”
SIGURD THE VOLSUNG (William Morris).
[Sidenote: Story of Nornagesta.]
On one occasion the Norns wandered off to Denmark, and entered the
dwelling of a nobleman just as his first child came into the world.
Entering the apartment where the mother lay, the first Norn promised
that the child should be handsome and brave, and the second that he
should be prosperous and a great scald--predictions which filled the
parents’ hearts with joy and greatly surprised the neighbors, who,
crowding in to see the strangers, rudely pushed the third Norn off her
chair.
Angry at this insult, Skuld proudly rose and declared her sisters’
gifts would be of no avail, as she decreed that the child should live
only as long as the taper then burning near the bedside. These ominous
words filled the mother’s heart with terror, and she tremblingly
clasped her babe closer to her breast, for the taper was nearly burned
out and its extinction could not be very far off. The eldest Norn,
however, had no intention of seeing her prediction thus set at naught;
but as she could not force her sister to retract her words, she quickly
seized the taper, put out the light, and giving the smoking stump to
the child’s mother, bade her carefully treasure it, and never light it
again until her son was weary of life.
“In the mansion it was night:
The Norns came,
Who should the prince’s
Life determine.”
SÆMUND’S EDDA (Thorpe’s tr.).
This child was called Nornagesta, in honor of the Norns, and grew up to
be as beautiful, brave, and talented as any mother could wish. When he
was old enough to comprehend the gravity of the trust, his mother told
him the story of the Norns’ visit, and placed in his hands the candle
end, which he treasured for many a year, placing it for safekeeping
inside of the frame of his harp. When his parents were dead, Nornagesta
wandered from place to place, taking part and distinguishing himself
in every battle, singing his heroic lays wherever he went. As he was
of an enthusiastic and poetic temperament, he did not soon become weary
of life, and while the other heroes grew wrinkled and old, he remained
young at heart and vigorous in frame. He therefore witnessed all the
deeds of the heroic ages, was the boon companion of all the ancient
warriors, and, after living three hundred years, saw the belief in the
old heathen gods gradually supplanted by the teachings of Christian
missionaries. Finally Nornagesta came to the court of King Olaf
Tryggvesson, who, according to his usual custom, converted him almost
by force, and made him receive baptism. Then, wishing to convince his
people that the time for superstition was past, the king forced the
aged scald to produce and light the taper which he had so carefully
guarded for more than three centuries.
In spite of his recent conversion, Nornagesta anxiously watched the
flame, and as it flickered and went out, he sank lifeless to the
ground, proving that, in spite of the baptism just received, he still
believed the words of the Norns.
In the middle ages, and even later, the Norns figure in many a story or
myth, appearing as fairies or witches, as, for instance, in the tale of
“the Sleeping Beauty,” and in Shakespeare’s tragedy of “Macbeth.”
“_1st Witch._ When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
_2d Witch._ When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won:
_3d Witch._ That will be ere the set of sun.”
MACBETH (Shakespeare).
[Sidenote: The Vala.]
Sometimes the Norns bore the name of Vala, or prophetesses, for they
had the power of divination--a power which was held in great honor by
all the Northern races, who believed it restricted to the female sex.
The predictions of the Vala were never questioned, and it is even said
that Drusus, the Roman general, was so terrified by the appearance
of Veleda, one of these women, forbidding his crossing the Elbe, that
he actually beat a retreat. She foretold his approaching death, which
actually happened shortly after and was occasioned by a fall from his
steed.
These prophetesses, who were also known as Idises, Dises, or Hagedises,
officiated at the forest shrines and in the sacred groves, and always
accompanied invading armies. Riding ahead, or in the very midst of the
host, they vehemently urged the warriors on to victory, and when the
battle was over they often cut the bloody-eagle upon the captives. The
blood was then collected into great tubs, wherein the Dises plunged
their naked arms up to the shoulders, previous to joining in the wild
dance with which the ceremony ended.
These women were greatly feared, sacrifices were offered to propitiate
them, and it was only in later times that they were degraded to the
rank of witches, and sent to join the demon host on the Brocken, or
Blocksberg, on Valpurgisnacht.
Besides the Norns or Dises, who were also regarded as protective
deities, the Northerners ascribed to each human being a guardian spirit
named Fylgie, which attended him through life, either in a human or
animal shape, and was invisible except at the moment of death by all
except the initiated few.
The allegorical meaning of the Norns and of their web of fate is too
patent to need any explanation; still some mythologists have made them
demons of the air, and state that their web was the woof of clouds,
and that the bands of mists which they strung from rock to tree, and
from mountain to mountain, were ruthlessly torn apart by the suddenly
rising wind. Some authorities, moreover, declare that Skuld, the third
Norn, was at times a Valkyr, and at others personated the party-colored
goddess of death, the terrible Hel.