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{{short description|Anglo-Saxon concept of personal fate or destiny}} | |||
'''Wyrd''' is a concept in ] and ] culture roughly corresponding to ]. It is ancestral to Modern English '']'', which has acquired a very different ]. The cognate term in old Norse is '''Urðr''', with a similar meaning, but also personalized as one of the ], '''Urðr''' (anglicized '''Urd'''). The concept corresponding to "fate" in ] is '''''Ørlǫg'''''. | |||
{{Other uses}} | |||
]'' by ] and ]|upright]] | |||
'''Wyrd''' is a concept in ] roughly corresponding to ] or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English '']'', whose meaning has drifted towards an ] use with a more general sense of "]" or "]", or simply "unexpected". | |||
The cognate term to ''wyrd'' in ] is {{lang|non|urðr}}, with a similar meaning, but also personified as a deity: ] (anglicized as {{transl|non|Urd}}), one of the ] in ]. The word also appears in the name of the well where the Norns meet, ]. | |||
The '''Well of Urd''' is the holy well, the Well Spring, the source of water for the world tree ]. | |||
== |
==Etymology== | ||
The ] term {{lang|ang|wyrd}} derives from a ] 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 ] {{lang|osx|wurd}},<ref>{{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> ] {{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> ] {{lang|non|]}},<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 ] 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 ] 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|]}}, with the notion of 'origin' or ']' both in the sense of 'connotation, price, value' and 'affiliation, identity, esteem, honour and dignity'.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}} | |||
Old English ''Wyrd'' is, derived from ] ''*wurþiz'', ] ''*wrti-'', a verbal abstract from the root ''*wert-'' "to turn" (Latin ''vertere''), related to the Old English verb ''weorþan'', meaning "to grow into, to become" (compare ] ''werden''). In its literal sense, it refers to "that which turns out, that which comes to pass". | |||
{{lang|ang|Wyrd}} is a ] formed from the Old English verb {{wikt-lang|ang|weorþan}}, meaning 'to come to pass, to become'.<ref>{{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> Adjectival use of wyrd developed in the 15th century, in the sense 'having the power to control destiny', originally in the name of the '']'', i.e. the classical ], who in the ] were detached from their classical background and given an English personification as '']''. | |||
Modern English ''weird'' developed its sense from ''weird sisters'' for the three fates or ] (Shakespeare in '']'' has the three ]es so called). They were usually portrayed as odd or uncanny in appearance, which led to the adjectival meaning (first recorded 1815). | |||
] (1783)]] | |||
The weird sisters notably appear as the ] in Shakespeare's '']''.<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 term ''ørlǫg'' is from '']'' "out, from, beyond" and '']'' "law", and may be interpreted literally as "beyond law", or as "fundamental/absolute/primary law". The word is still used in ]: ''oorlog'' = war. | |||
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 ] ''werd''. The replacement of ''werd'' by ''weird'' in the northern dialects is "difficult to account for".<ref>]. c.f. ].</ref> | |||
==Concept== | |||
In a simple sense, ''Wyrd'' refers to how past actions continually affect and condition the future, but also how the future affects the past. Indeed, for a true comprehension it is key for the Wyrd to be embraced as a conceptual mystery, wherein the ] and ] of time and timelessness flow and weave always, entwining the reticulum of the fabric of being and non-being.<ref>Not only are the terms ''time'' and ''tide'' etymologically rooted, but the terms and their metaphorical accoutrement yielded the conflux: ].</ref> The Wyrd also foregrounds the interconnected nature of all actions and how they influence each other. Wyrd, though conceptually related, is not congruent with ]. Unlike predestination, the concept of Wyrd allows for one's wyrd or agency: albeit agency constrained by the wyrds or activities of others, but nevertheless capable of weaving reality. This view is also prominent in the concept of ], as used in ]. Wyrd is "]"<ref>"]": "Wyrd bið ful aræd" (Fate remains wholly inexorable)</ref> and "goes as she shall"<ref>]: "Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel!" (Fate goes ever as she shall!)</ref>, the ] (Norse ''ørlǫg'') woven or scored by the ]. Indeed, the term's Norse cognate ''urðr'', besides meaning "fate", is the name of one of the Norns, closely related to the concept of necessity ('']''). The name of the younger sister, '']'', is strictly the present participle of the verb cognate to ''weorþan''. | |||
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 ] ''weird and wonderful''), but by the early 20th century increasingly applied to everyday situations.<ref>]; c.f. ] ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology''. ] {{ISBN|0-06-270084-7}} (1995:876).</ref> | |||
According to ] 20, the three Norns "set up the laws", "decided on the lives of the children of time" and "promulgate their ''Ørlǫg''"<ref></ref>. | |||
], on the other hand, while she "knows all ørlǫg", "says it not herself" (] 30). | |||
''ørlǫglausa'' "ørlǫg-less" occurs in Voluspa 17 in reference to trees (as opposed to humans). | |||
== |
==Fate in Germanic mythology== | ||
{{main|Norns}} | |||
According to Wodening (2004), The Well of Wyrd (]: Urðarbrunnr or Urðarbrunni) springs "at the base of Yggdrasil"<ref>Source: (accessed: August 20, 2007)</ref> other sources locate it in ]<ref>Gylfaginning 15, ]</ref>. Wodening affirms that there are two other wells within the Norse cosmology also at the base of the World Tree: '']'' "Mimir's Well", where Wóden sacrificed an eye to drink of wisdom or abovewhich he was nailed or bound inverted upon Yggdrasil for nine days and from ] he retrieved the Runes; and '']'' "the roaring cauldron", the well that all waters of the Nine Worlds are held to both flow from and to which they ultimately return. These various wells are often conflated. Bauchatz (1982: p.?) affirms that just as The Norn though three are one, so the three Wells of Wyrd are also one. | |||
] (1889)|upright]] | |||
According to J. Duncan Spaeth, "Wyrd (Norse Urd, one of the three ]) 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=|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013338623}}</ref> | |||
In general tradition, The Well of Wyrd, is the wellspring which feeds the ], the principal root of ]'s three. Some traditions locate ] in a hall by the Well wherefrom they tend the Well and the Tree. In some traditions, The Norn ] and incise the ]s of Fate directly onto the living trunk of Yggdrasil from that which they ] in the Well. | |||
{{lang|ang|Wyrd}} is a feminine noun,<ref>, ''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 ]. 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 ] in Greek and Roman mythology, who are goddesses of fate.<ref name="nordiskdis">'']'' (1907)</ref> | |||
==Notes== | |||
⚫ | {{reflist}} | ||
The names of the Norns are ], ], and ]. {{lang|non|Urðr}} means 'that which has come to pass', {{lang|non|]}} 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|]}} 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|]}} 'out, from, beyond' and {{lang|non|]}} 'law', and may be interpreted literally as 'beyond law'). According to '']'' 20, the three Norns "set up the laws", "decided on the lives of the children of time" and "promulgate their {{lang|non|ørlǫg}}". ], on the other hand, while she "knows all ørlǫg", "says it not herself" ('']'' 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, ] ('Ash' and possibly 'Elm' or 'Vine'). | |||
Mentions of {{lang|ang|wyrd}} in ] include ], "{{lang|ang|Wyrd bið ful aræd}}" ('Fate remains wholly inexorable') and '']'', "{{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 ], 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> ] used the word "weird" in his science-fiction novel '']'' 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 ], 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== | ==See also== | ||
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*] - similar concept within Islam | |||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
⚫ | {{reflist}} | ||
*Bauchatz, Paul (1982). ''The Well and the Tree''. Amherse: University of Massachuetts Press. | |||
*], 'Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought', ''Essays and Studies'' 13 (1928), 7-27. | |||
*Wodening, Swain (revised by Eric Wodening) (2004). ''Wyrd.'' Source: (accessed: August 20, 2007) | |||
{{Anglo-SaxonPaganism}} | |||
==External links== | |||
{{Norse mythology}} | |||
* by Arlea Æðelwyrd Hunt-Anschütz | |||
{{Time in religion and mythology}} | |||
* by Swain Wodening Canote (ealdriht.org) | |||
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Latest revision as of 01:41, 30 June 2024
Anglo-Saxon concept of personal fate or destiny For other uses, see Wyrd (disambiguation).Wyrd is a concept in Anglo-Saxon culture roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English weird, whose meaning has drifted towards an adjectival use with a more general sense of "supernatural" or "uncanny", or simply "unexpected".
The cognate term to wyrd in Old Norse is urðr, with a similar meaning, but also personified as a deity: Urðr (anglicized as 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 wyrd derives from a Proto-Germanic term *wurđíz. Wyrd has cognates in Old Saxon wurd, Old High German wurt, Old Norse urðr, Dutch worden (to become), and German werden. The Proto-Indo-European root is *wert- meaning 'to twist', which is related to Latin vertere 'turning, rotating', and in Proto-Germanic is *werþan- with a meaning 'to come to pass, to become, to be due'. The same root is also found in *weorþ, with the notion of 'origin' or 'worth' both in the sense of 'connotation, price, value' and 'affiliation, identity, esteem, honour and dignity'.
Wyrd is a noun formed from the Old English verb weorþan, meaning 'to come to pass, to become'. 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 fays.
The weird sisters notably appear as the Three Witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth. To elucidate this, many editors of the play include a footnote associating the "Weird Sisters" with the Old English word wyrd or 'fate'.
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'. 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".
The most common modern meaning of weird – 'odd, strange' – 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.
Fate in Germanic mythology
Main article: NornsAccording 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."
Wyrd is a feminine noun, and its Norse cognate urðr, besides meaning 'fate', is the name of one of the deities known as Norns. For this reason, Wyrd has been interpreted by some scholars as a pre-Christian goddess of fate. Other scholars deny a pagan signification of wyrd in the Old English period, but allow that wyrd may have been a deity in the pre-Christian period. 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.
The names of the Norns are Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. Urðr means 'that which has come to pass', verðandi means "that which is in the process of happening" (it is the present participle of the verb cognate to weorþan), and skuld means 'debt' or 'guilt' (from a Germanic root *skul- 'to owe', also found in English should and shall).
Between themselves, the Norns weave fate or ørlǫg (from ór 'out, from, beyond' and 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 ørlǫg". Frigg, on the other hand, while she "knows all ørlǫg", "says it not herself" (Lokasenna 30). Lawless that is "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 wyrd in Old English literature include The Wanderer, "Wyrd bið ful aræd" ('Fate remains wholly inexorable') and Beowulf, "Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel!" ('Fate goes ever as she shall!'). In The Wanderer, 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".
Other uses
The Wyrd Mons, a mountain on Venus, is named after an "Anglo-Saxon weaving goddess". Frank Herbert used the word "weird" in his science-fiction 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."
See also
- Amor fati
- Beot
- Destiny
- Karma
- Predestination
- Predestination in Islam
- Moirai
- Ṛta
- Teotl
- Weaving (mythology)
References
- Karsten, Gustaf E. Michelle Kindler Philology, University of Illinois Press, 1908, p. 12.
- Harper, Douglas. "Weird". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "Weird". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- Branston, Brian (1974). The lost gods of England. Internet Archive. New York : Oxford University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-19-519796-9.
- ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013). Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden. pp. 581–582. ISBN 978-90-04-18340-7. OCLC 851754510.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Bek-Pedersen, Karen (2011). The Norns in old Norse mythology. Internet Archive. Edinburgh : Dunedin. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-906716-18-9.
- Harper, Douglas. "Weird". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- Karsten, Gustaf E. Germanic Philology, University of Illinois Press, 1908, p. 12.
- de Grazia, Margareta and Stallybrass, Peter. The Materiality of the Shakespearean Text, George Washington University, 1993, p. 263.
- OED. c.f. phonological history of Scots.
- OED; c.f. Barnhart, Robert K. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology. HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-270084-7 (1995:876).
- Spaeth, J. Duncan (1921). Old English Poetry. Princeton University Press. p. 208.
- "WYRD, Gender: Feminine", Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
- Frakes, Jerold C. The Ancient Concept of casus and its Early Medieval Interpretations, Brill, 1984, p. 15.
- Nordisk familjebok (1907)
- Ferrell, C. C. Old Germanic Life in the Anglo-Saxon, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1894, pp. 402-403.
- "Wyrd Mons". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
- Palumbo, Donald E. (2014-11-19). The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films: 28 Visions of the Hero's Journey. McFarland. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4766-1851-7.
- Bertha S. Philpotts, 'Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought', Essays and Studies 13 (1928), 7-27.
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