A multitude of conceptions describing human interrelations were invariably linked
to the ideas of fate and destiny, and the desire for power, control and domination, if not
blatant, lurked very near to the surface when various fortunes were foretold.
The myths about creation, cosmogony and anthropogony were woven into a grand
narrative about the end. The predicted destinies of individuals, families, gods and other
mythological beings, and even of the universe itself, at Ragnaro ̨k are consistently
mentioned in the various texts, and all in relation to the fate of final destruction – the
culminating point of destiny itself. There appears to have been a strong correspondence
between conceptions of personal destiny and the Old Norse narratives of creation and
destruction, which also surface in details revealing more small-scale dimensions of how
individuals could have related to destiny.
NORNSThe norns (pl. nornir) are perhaps the most renowned agents of fate. They are depicted as
the carvers of the rune or the weavers of destiny and fortune. The portrait of the norns
weaving represents a beautiful image of how individual destinies are invariably
entwined. In mythological narratives they are said to dwell at the foot of Yggdrasill,
close to the well associated with insight and clandestine knowledge. In Vo ̨luspá they
seem to control the destiny of the whole universe, which is doomed to inevitable
destruction. The ‘wise maidens’ (meyjar, margs vitandi) who appear in this text are given
individual symbolic names, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld, popularly understood as ‘Past’,
‘Present’ and ‘Future’. Stanza 20 offers the following portrayal:
From there come three girls, knowing a great deal,
from the lake which stands under the tree;
Fated one is called, Becoming another –
they carved on wooden slips – Must-be the third;
they set down laws, they chose lives,
for the sons of men the fates of men.
(trans. Carolyne Larrington)To establish a possible connection between runes and providence, the act of carving
with respect to fate has been linked to the divination ceremonies outlined by
Tacitus, Egill Skallagrimson’s use of runes, and descriptions of Óðinn’s efforts to gain
runelore.
Although mythical by definition, nornir make a brief appearance in the sagas as well –
there in more or less imaginary circumstances. In the fornaldarsaga Norna-Gests þáttr it is
difficult to distinguish between nornir establishing a destiny and the invited seeresses
(vo ̨lur) reading the future. The text tells of a gathering at a wealthy farmhouse to
celebrate the birth of a newborn son – a gathering to which three honoured women have
been invited. In the course of the affair, however, Norna Gestr’s mother inadvertently
offends one of the special guests, who then decides to punish her by giving the child a
short span of life. Fortunately, the other two women intervene to salvage the happy day.
Snorri explains in Gylfaginning ( 15 ): ‘Good norns, ones of noble parentage, shape good
lives, but as for those people that become the victims of misfortune, it is evil norns that
are responsible.’
–– Catharina Raudvere––