Norns

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This article is about the Norns from Norse mythology. See Norn language for the language once spoken in Scotland, and Norns (Creatures) for the computer game species.

Image:Nornorna spinner ödets trådar vid Yggdrasil.jpg

The Norns (Old Norse: norn, plural: nornir) of Norse mythology are three dísirs by the names of Urd (the past), Verdandi (the being) and Skuld (what is to come). (Skuld was also the name of a Valkyrie.)

They live beneath the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree at the center of the cosmos (although some accounts have it that they dwell above the arch of the Bifrost Bridge), where they weave the tapestry of fates. Each person's life is a string in their loom, and the length of the string is the length of the person's life.

Thus everything is preordained in the Norse Religion: even the gods have their own threads, though the norns do not let the gods see those. This clear subjection of the gods to a power outside their control and the implication that they, too, will have an End are major themes of the literature surrounding Norse mythology.

The three weaving crones who control destiny exist at a deep mythic level, though probably not as old as the art of weaving itself. The counterparts of the Norns among the Greeks were the Moirae, known to the Romans as the Parcae.

Image:Nornir by Lund.jpg

In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, three witches called the Weird Sisters tell the protagonist about his destiny. Weird is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wyrd, which is cognate to urd. The three weird sisters appears to have been a late version of the Norns.

The Norns are also alluded to as "one-eyed shrews" in Allen Ginsberg's poem, Howl.

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Trivia

Three characters very loosely based on the Norns, and named as such, appear in the Japanese manga and anime series Oh My Goddess!.
A race called the Norns also appears in Tad Williams's fantasy series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn; however, there is no apparent relation.
Also three of the main characters in Robin Jarvis's "The Wyrd Museum Trilogy" are the Norns, named Ursula Webster (Urd), Celandie Webster (Skuld) and Veronica Webster (Verdandi).
In Warhammer 40,000, the malicious Tyranid race is ruled by beings called the Norn Queens, although there does not appear to be any direct connection.
In Neil Gaiman's American Gods, the protagonist, Shadow, pays a visit to the Norns.

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