The Norns (Old Norse: norn, plural nornir) are the women in Norse mythology who shape fate. They decide the course and the length of every single life. The three best-known, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld, live at the Well of Urd (Old Norse: Urðarbrunnr) under the world tree Yggdrasil, in the heart of Asgard.
But the Norns are not only three sisters by a well. The old sources say that the Norns come to every child when it is born, and when a person dies, the poets call it “the verdict of the Norns”. They are there at the beginning of every life and at its end. People in Scandinavia went on believing in them long after the Viking Age had passed.
Who Are the Norns?
The Norns are not goddesses, and they are not counted among the Aesir. They can be described as beings of fate and time. An old list of poetic names puts it simply: “Norns are called those women who shape what must be.” The Old Norse word for fate, sköp, even comes from the verb skapa, “to shape”.
In the Eddic poems, the Norns are often mentioned when a life comes to an end. The poets speak of the judgment or the verdict of the norns, and they mean death, or a life that has run its course.
Urd, Verdandi and Skuld: What Their Names Mean
According to the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, the three Norns are called Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld. Their names are easy to read for anyone who knows Old Norse. Urðr means something like “what once was” or “what happened”. Verðandi means “what is coming into being”, and Skuld means “what shall be”.
Together the three names cover the past, the present and the future. That is why the Norns are often described as the past, the present and the future, although the poems never give each of them a separate part of time.
The names hide a few surprises. Urðr is related to the Old English word wyrd, meaning fate, which lives on in the modern English word “weird”. Skuld comes from the same root as the English words “shall” and “should”.
Of the three, only Urðr is known outside this one story, through the Well of Urd that carries her name. Skuld turns up in another role as well, because she is also named as one of the Valkyries.
The Norns at the Well of Urd
The poem Völuspá describes how the Norns come to the tree. In John Lindow’s translation, it reads:
Thence come maidens, much knowing,
three of them, out of that lake, which stands under the tree.
They call Urd one, the second Verdandi (they carved on a stick), Skuld the third.
They established laws, they chose lives for the children of people, fates of men.
“They carved on a stick” most likely means that the Norns cut marks, perhaps runes, into wood to record what they decided. The stanza also shows that the Norns did more than shape the lives of people. They “established laws”, so their task was part of how the whole world was ordered. In this version of the poem they come out of a lake, while Snorri and another manuscript of Völuspá have them come out of a beautiful hall.
The Norns have another important task, and that is to keep Yggdrasil green and healthy. Each day they carry water from the Well of Urd and collect the white clay that lies around it, and they pour it over the great ash tree. If they did not do this, the tree would start to rot. Völuspá describes the same tree as “sprinkled with white mud” and says it stands forever green over the well.
The well is also one of the most important places in the mythology. Snorri says the gods hold their court there, and every day the Aesir ride up to the well across the bridge Bifröst. So each day the gods gather at the place where fate itself is shaped.
The Norns at Birth: Weaving the Web of Fate
The Norns did not only work at the well. The poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, which tells the story of the hero Helgi, begins on the night he is born. The Norns come to the house and shape the life of the newborn child, and they weave his fate into a thread of gold.
Old Norse: Nótt varð í bæ, nornir kómu, þær er öðlingi aldr of skópu; þann báðu fylki frægstan verða ok buðlunga beztan þykkja.
English: ‘Twas night in the dwelling, and Norns there came, / Who shaped the life of the lofty one; / They bade him most famed of fighters all / And best of princes ever to be.
Old Norse: Sneru þær af afli örlögþáttu, þá er borgir braut í Bráluni; þær of greiddu gullin símu ok und mánasal miðjan festu.
English: Mightily wove they the web of fate, / While Bralund’s towns were trembling all; / And there the golden threads they wove, / And in the moon’s hall fast they made them.
This is where the famous image of the Norns weaving the threads of fate comes from. In Völuspá they carve, but here they spin and weave. Both images say the same thing. For Helgi, fate is shaped on the night he is born, and Snorri says the same happens to every child.
How Many Norns Are There?
Most people know the Norns as three sisters, but Snorri makes it clear that there are more. After describing Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, he writes that “there are additional norns, who come to each child, when it is born, to shape the life”. Some of them are related to the gods, others are of the family of the elves, and a third group comes from the dwarves.
Snorri takes this from the poem Fáfnismál. In stanza 13 the dying dragon Fáfnir tells Sigurd that the Norns are born of very different parents and do not share one family. Some are related to the Aesir, some to the elves, and some are the daughters of Dvalin, a dwarf. The dwarves had norns of their own too. In the poem Reginsmál, the dwarf Andvari complains that “a wicked norn shaped us in days of old”, and that is why he has to live in the water as a fish.
This raises a fair question, and Snorri lets the character Gylfi ask it. If the Norns decide the fates of men, why do they do it so unevenly? Some people live long and happy lives, while others are poor or die young.
The answer is short: “Good norns of good family give a good life, but those people whose destiny is not good, bad norns cause that.”
It is possible that the three famous Norns stand above all the others, and that each being has its own norn, a little like the fylgja, the spirit that follows a person through life.
The sources do not say this directly, so it remains a guess. What they do make clear is that fate was not handed out by three sisters alone.
Did People Believe in the Norns?
The old sources say little about people worshipping the Norns the way they worshipped the gods. But there are clear signs that people believed the Norns shaped their lives, and that this belief lasted a long time.
The Icelandic poet Hallfreðr, who became a Christian, called the old religion he had left behind “the long-maintained fates of the norns”. Even after Christianity came to Scandinavia, the Norns did not disappear. At the entrance to the stave church in Borgund in Norway, a man named Þórir (Thórir) carved a runic inscription that reads:
Thórir carved these runes on St. Olaf’s day when he came by here. The norns did both good and bad. They shaped a lot of sorrow for me.
It is a striking thing to find in a church. Even there, on a Christian holy day, the old way of speaking about fate through the Norns was still alive.
The belief also lived on in folk custom. In much later Norwegian folklore, the porridge that was set out for the spirits when a child was born was called nornegraut, “norn’s porridge”. It was probably meant to keep the Norns on the good side, so they would bless the mother and the child with good health. This fits well with what the old poems say, because the Norns are above all the ones who come at birth.
A Note From Me
“It is no secret that life is not fair. Some people are born into a wealthy family, while others live in places with better opportunities. We can of course choose to blame the Norns for our fate, but we can also accept it and realize that some of us live our lives like a video game set on hard mode. I don’t know about you, but I would rather accept that challenge than blame the Norns.” Skjalden
The Norns in Popular Culture
In the Marvel comics, the Norns appear as the three sisters Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, who watch over the fates of the people in all the realms.
In the video game God of War from 2018, the Norns gave their name to the Nornir chests. These chests hold items that improve Kratos’ health and rage. In God of War Ragnarök (2022), the three Norns finally appear in person, hidden deep below the Lake of Nine. True to the myths, they know what is coming, but they only give Kratos riddles.
In 2004 the Swedish metal band Amon Amarth released an album called Fate of Norns. You can find more bands inspired by the old myths in my list of Viking music.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Norns
Who are the Norns in Norse mythology?
The Norns are the women who shape fate in Norse mythology. The three best known, Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, live at the Well of Urd under Yggdrasil and decide the course and length of every life.
What are the names of the three Norns?
The three Norns are Urðr (Urd), Verðandi (Verdandi) and Skuld. Their names mean roughly “what happened”, “what is happening” and “what shall be”, so together they stand for the past, the present and the future.
Are the Norns goddesses?
No. The Norns are not counted among the gods. They are beings of fate, and Snorri says that some norns are related to the gods, some to the elves and some to the dwarves.
How many Norns are there?
Three Norns are named at the Well of Urd, but Snorri writes that many other norns come to each child at birth to shape its life.
What is the Well of Urd?
The Well of Urd (Urðarbrunnr) is the well under one of the roots of Yggdrasil where the Norns live. The gods hold their court there every day.
Is Skuld a Norn or a Valkyrie?
Both. Skuld is the youngest of the three Norns, and the same name is also found in the lists of Valkyries.
Sources
- Völuspá, Poetic Edda. Quoted in the translation of John Lindow.
- Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, stanzas 2 and 3, Poetic Edda. English translation by Henry Adams Bellows (1923).
- Fáfnismál, stanza 13, and Reginsmál, stanza 2, Poetic Edda.
- Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda (c. 1220).
- John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (Oxford University Press, 2001), “Norns”, pp. 243–245, and “Urdarbrunn”, p. 301.
- Jesse Byock (2005) Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-140-44755-2
- Anthony Faulkes (1995) Snorri Sturluson, Edda. London: Everyman J. M. Dent. ISBN 978-0-4608-7616-2
- Lee M. Hollander (1962) The Poetic Edda. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-76499-6
