Editing Wyrd (section)

==Fate in Germanic mythology==
{{main|Norns}}
[[File:Die Nornen (1889) by Johannes Gehrts.jpg|thumb|right|''The Norns'' by [[Johannes Gehrts]] (1889)|upright]]

According to J. Duncan Spaeth, "Wyrd (Norse Urd, one of the three [[Norns]]) is the Old English goddess of Fate, whom even Christianity could not entirely displace."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Spaeth|first1=J. Duncan|title=Old English Poetry|date=1921|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924013338623/page/n225 208]|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013338623}}</ref>

{{lang|ang|Wyrd}} is a feminine noun,<ref>[http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/036952 "WYRD, Gender: Feminine"], ''Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary''</ref> and its Norse cognate {{lang|non|urðr}}, besides meaning 'fate', is the name of one of the deities known as [[Norns]]. For this reason, {{lang|ang|Wyrd}} has been interpreted by some scholars as a pre-Christian goddess of fate. Other scholars deny a pagan signification of {{lang|ang|wyrd}} in the Old English period, but allow that {{lang|ang|wyrd}} may have been a deity in the pre-Christian period.<ref>Frakes, Jerold C. ''The Ancient Concept of casus and its Early Medieval Interpretations'', Brill, 1984, p. 15.</ref> In particular, some scholars argue that the three Norns are a late influence from the three [[Moirai]] in Greek and Roman mythology, who are goddesses of fate.<ref name="nordiskdis">''[[Nordisk familjebok]]'' (1907)</ref>

The names of the Norns are [[Urðr]], [[Verðandi]], and [[Skuld]]. {{lang|non|Urðr}} means 'that which has come to pass', {{lang|non|[[verðandi]]}} means "that which is in the process of happening" (it is the present participle of the verb cognate to  {{lang|non|weorþan}}), and {{lang|non|[[Skuld (Norn)|skuld]]}} means 'debt' or 'guilt' (from a Germanic root {{lang|ine-x-proto|*skul-}} 'to owe', also found in English ''should'' and ''shall'').

Between themselves, the Norns weave fate or {{lang|non|ørlǫg}} (from {{lang|non|[[:wikt:ór|ór]]}} 'out, from, beyond' and {{lang|non|[[:wikt:lög|lǫg]]}} 'law', and may be interpreted literally as 'beyond law'). According to ''[[Voluspa]]'' 20, the three Norns "set up the laws", "decided on the lives of the children of time" and "promulgate their {{lang|non|ørlǫg}}". [[Frigg]], on the other hand, while she "knows all ørlǫg", "says it not herself" (''[[Lokasenna]]'' 30). Lawless that is "{{lang|non|ørlǫglausa}}"  occurs in ''Voluspa'' 17 in reference to driftwood, that is given breath, warmth and spirit by three gods, to create the first humans, [[Ask and Embla]] ('Ash' and possibly 'Elm' or 'Vine').

Mentions of {{lang|ang|wyrd}} in [[Old English literature]] include [[The Wanderer (Old English poem)|''The Wanderer'']],  "{{lang|ang|Wyrd bið ful aræd}}" ('Fate remains wholly inexorable') and  ''[[Beowulf]]'', "{{lang|ang|Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel!}}" ('Fate goes ever as she shall!'). In ''The Wanderer'', {{lang|ang|wyrd}} is irrepressible and relentless. She or it "snatches the earls away from the joys of life," and "the wearied mind of man cannot withstand her" for her decrees "change all the world beneath the heavens".<ref>Ferrell, C. C. ''Old Germanic Life in the Anglo-Saxon'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1894, pp. 402-403.</ref>