Editing Wyrd

{{short description|Anglo-Saxon concept of personal fate or destiny}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Urd magazine.jpg|thumb|Poster for the Norwegian magazine ''[[Urd (magazine)|Urd]]'' by [[Andreas Bloch]] and [[Olaf Krohn]]|upright]]
'''Wyrd''' is a concept in  [[Anglo-Saxon culture]] roughly corresponding to [[fate]] or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English ''[[:wiktionary:weird|weird]]'', whose meaning has drifted towards an [[adjective|adjectival]] use with a more general sense of "[[supernatural]]" or "[[uncanny]]", or simply "unexpected".

The cognate term to ''wyrd'' in [[Old Norse]] is {{lang|non|urðr}}, with a similar meaning, but also personified as a deity: [[Urðr]] (anglicized as {{Transliteration|non|Urd}}), one of the [[Norns]] in [[Norse mythology]]. The word also appears in the name of the well where the Norns meet, [[Urðarbrunnr]].

==Etymology==

The [[Old English]] term {{lang|ang|wyrd}} derives from a [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] term {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wurđíz}}.<ref>Karsten, Gustaf E. ''Michelle Kindler Philology'', University of Illinois Press, 1908, p. 12.</ref> ''Wyrd'' has cognates in [[Old Saxon]] {{lang|osx|wurd}},<ref name=":0"/> [[Old High German]] {{lang|goh|wurt}},<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last1=Harper|first1=Douglas|title=Weird|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=weird|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=24 March 2017}}</ref> [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|[[urðr]]}},<ref>{{Cite book |last=Branston |first=Brian |url=http://archive.org/details/lostgodsofenglan0000bran |title=The lost gods of England |date=1974 |publisher=New York : Oxford University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-19-519796-9 |pages=68}}</ref> Dutch {{lang|nl|worden}} (to become),<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kroonen |first=Guus |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/851754510 |title=Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic |date=2013 |isbn=978-90-04-18340-7 |location=Leiden |pages=581–582 |oclc=851754510}}</ref> and German {{lang|de|werden}}.<ref name=":0" /> The [[Proto-Indo-European root]] is {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wert-}} meaning 'to twist', which is related to Latin ''vertere'' 'turning, rotating',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bek-Pedersen |first=Karen |url=http://archive.org/details/nornsinoldnorsem0000bekp |title=The Norns in old Norse mythology |date=2011 |publisher=Edinburgh : Dunedin |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-906716-18-9 |pages=80}}</ref> and in [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] is {{lang|ine-x-proto|*werþan-}} with a meaning 'to come to pass, to become, to be due'.<ref name=":1" /> The same root is also found in {{lang|ine-x-proto|[[:wikt:weorþ|weorþ]]}}, with the notion of 'origin' or '[[:wikt:worth|worth]]' both in the sense of 'connotation, price, value' and 'affiliation, identity, esteem, honour and dignity'.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}}

{{lang|ang|Wyrd}} is a [[verbal noun|noun]] formed from the Old English verb {{wikt-lang|ang|weorþan}}, meaning 'to come to pass, to become'.<ref name=":0"/> Adjectival use of wyrd developed in the 15th century, in the sense 'having the power to control destiny', originally in the name of the ''[[Weird Sisters]]'', i.e. the classical [[Fates]], who in the [[Elizabethan period]] were detached from their classical background and given an English personification as ''[[Fairy|fays]]''.
[[File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 019.jpg|alt=Painting showing three faces with hooked noses in profile, eyes looking up. Each has an arm outstretched with crooked fingers.|thumb|''The Three Witches'' by [[Henry Fuseli]] (1783)]]
The weird sisters notably appear as the [[Three Witches]] in Shakespeare's ''[[Macbeth]]''.<ref>Karsten, Gustaf E. ''Germanic Philology'', University of Illinois Press, 1908, p. 12.</ref> To elucidate this, many editors of the play include a footnote associating the "Weird Sisters" with the Old English word {{lang|ang|wyrd}} or 'fate'.<ref>de Grazia, Margareta and Stallybrass, Peter. ''The Materiality of the Shakespearean Text'', George Washington University, 1993, p. 263.</ref>

The modern English usage actually developed from Scots, in which beginning in the 14th century, ''to weird'' was used as a verb with the sense of 'to preordain by decree of fate'.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}} This use then gave rise to the early nineteenth century adjective meaning 'unearthly', which then developed into modern English ''weird''.

The modern spelling ''weird'' first appeared in Scottish and Northern English dialects in the 16th century and was taken up in standard literary English starting in the 17th century. The regular form ought to have been ''wird'', from [[Early Modern English]] ''werd''. The replacement of ''werd'' by ''weird'' in the northern dialects is "difficult to account for".<ref>[[OED]]. cf. [[Phonological history of Scots#Vowel 15|phonological history of Scots]].</ref>

The most common modern meaning of ''weird''{{snd}}'odd, strange'{{snd}}is first attested in 1815, originally with a connotation of the supernatural or portentous (especially in the [[collocation]] ''weird and wonderful''), but by the early 20th century increasingly applied to everyday situations.<ref>[[OED]]; cf. [[Robert Barnhart|Barnhart, Robert K.]]  ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology''. [[HarperCollins]] {{ISBN|0-06-270084-7}} (1995:876).</ref>

==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>

==Other uses==

The Wyrd Mons, a [[List of montes on Venus|mountain on Venus]], is named after an "Anglo-Saxon weaving goddess".<ref>{{cite web|title=Wyrd Mons|website=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature|url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6593?__fsk=1204763618}}</ref> [[Frank Herbert]] used the word "weird" in his science-fiction novel ''[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]'' to connote power, e.g. a martial art is referred to as "the Weirding Way", which takes place at the speed of thought. This was modified by director [[David Lynch]], in his 1984 film version of the book, to become a system of sonic weapons called "weirding modules."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Palumbo |first=Donald E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HApNBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT60 |title=The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films: 28 Visions of the Hero's Journey |date=2014-11-19 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1851-7 |pages=60 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wiktionary|wyrd}}
{{div col}}
*[[Amor fati]]
*[[Beot]]
*[[Destiny]]
*[[Karma]]
*[[Predestination]]
*[[Predestination in Islam]]
*[[Moirai]]
*[[Ṛta]]
*[[Teotl]]
*[[Weaving (mythology)]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
*[[Bertha Phillpotts|Bertha S. Philpotts]], 'Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought', ''Essays and Studies'' 13 (1928), 7-27.

{{Anglo-SaxonPaganism}}
{{Norse mythology}}
{{Time in religion and mythology}}

[[Category:Anglo-Saxon paganism]]
[[Category:Germanic paganism]]
[[Category:Magical terms in Germanic mysticism]]
[[Category:Norse mythology]]
[[Category:Destiny]]