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The Norns in Old Norse Mythology by Karen Bek-Pedersen (review)

Article  in  JEGP Journal of English and Germanic Philology · January 2013

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Carolyne Larrington
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Three questions are posed in the Introduction to Karen Bek-Pedersen’s very useful
book on the Norns in Norse literature and mythology. Why, she asks, is fate so often
presented in feminine guise? Second, what is the connection between the nornir and
textile-related work? And third, what does it mean to regard fate as a kind of law – or at
least to express the concept of fate or destiny through legal terminology? To these
questions, a de facto fourth is added: what is the relationship between the nornir and
water? The answers to these inquiries, together with chapters on sources and terminology,
broadly frame the chapter-by-chapter organization of the book.
Based on her thesis, and two already published articles, The Norns in Old Norse
Mythology offers a thorough discussion of these elusive figures. At the end of the first
chapter, the assertion is made that the research is “not intended to constitute the final
academic word on the nornir” but rather “the findings presented below can serve as a
base for future research”. In fact, Bek-Pedersen’s study achieves much more than
clearing the ground; while it does not indeed offer the final word, it explodes many
preconceptions about the nornir which scholars have tended to promulgate in their
summaries of the figures’ activities and it treats a very wide range of sources, though,
oddly, Hrafnagaldr Óðins, explicitly mentioned on p. 3, does not appear again in the
volume.
Bek-Pedersen answers two of the three crucial questions posed in the introduction,
namely the connections with textiles and the concept of fate as law, while, perhaps
inevitably, she does not manage to account for (as opposed to demonstrate) the feminine
gender of the nornir and associated figures such as Urðr or the dísir. The net is cast quite
widely in this chapter, for fylgjur, völur amd valkyries are also considered; Bek-Pedersen
sensibly notes (p. 64) that the classification of the different types of supernatural female
must always have been shifting, both over time and in space, and shows how, for
example, Ström’s assumption that the valkyries represent the ‘heroic-mythical aspect’ of
the dísir, and the norns their ‘fatal aspect’ misunderstands the complexities of the
nomenclature. His contention that the dísir are the overarching category in which the
other figures – some human, some in animal form – are subsumed is not supported by the
patchwork of evidence about their functions.
The third chapter, “The Women in the Well” charts the associations between the
nornir and water, including the poorly understood relationship of the three nornir
mentioned in Völuspá and the Urðar-brunnr (usually translated as “the Well of Fate”. As
in the following chapter, Bek-Pedersen’s detailed analysis foregrounds the fact that the
three named nornir, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuldr, only appear together in series in Völuspá
and Gylfaginning (the second instance dependent on the first as source). The lake or well
is in the Codex Regius text of Völuspá, (sœ against Hauksbók’s sal) and renders less
certainly ancient the association with standing water. Bek-Pedersen also calls into
question the value of etymology for interpreting the three Norn names, and the assumed
link between the Indo-European root * wert, evidenced in Latin vertere “to turn”, and
Urðr’s name, an argument considered more thoroughly in the following chapter. Here she
argues against the association of the three nornir with Past, Present and Future. Urðr and
Skuldr are older names with a broad range of connotations beyond the chronological,
while Verðandi seems to be an ad hoc invention, formulated precisely to complete the
chronological sequence and, as Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinn has suggested, thus not very old.
This chapter continues with a discussion of fate and fate-type figures associated with
dark, humid places, with a predictable but not particularly plausible appearance from
Grendel’s Mother (p. 97), and concludes with an analysis of the dyngja (women’s
quarters or domestic work-room) as dark, often below ground, womb-like spaces where
men’s fates are shaped by women’s work and women’s talk. This section, interesting in
itself, does not add much to the watery theme of the chapter.
Although its findings have been heralded in Bek-Pedersen’s two articles published
in 2007 and 2009 in Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, chapter four is carefully argued
and it offers a warning against making idle generalisations about supernatural activity on
the part of the nornir and related figures. The author shows that the ‘fate-as-textile’
metaphor does indeed exist in Old Norse, but that it does not usually involve activity by
the Norns (pp. 156-7). The only unequivocal reference shows them plying or plaiting
strands of fate together at the beginning of the eddic poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana I;
otherwise those female figures who spin (the swan-maidens of Völundarkviða), or weave
(Darraðarljóð) are not Norns, though at least the valkyries of the last-mentioned poem
are determining the fates of men on the battlefield. Muted references to the conceptual
metaphor “fate as textile” do appear occasionally in the sagas however, though whether,
as Bek-Pedersen sensibly notes, this implies an origin in a pagan world-view is
debateable. After all, women do spend much of their time engaged in various aspects of
textile production.
The final chapter, exploring concepts of Fate as law, addresses a wide range of
sources. The author starts by wrestling with the conceptual terminology for Fate. This is
even more complex than the terminology for different Fate-related beings, and despite the
assertion that etymology does not bear on semantics made earlier in the book, inevitably
there is little else to fall back on in the discussion of some of the lexis collocating with
Norns. Thus words derived from the legal domain, skipta, dómr, kviðr, together with lög
and örlög tend to denote activities associated with the nornir, while, intriguingly, forlög
never appears in conjunction with them. Sköp, with its very wide semantic associations,
ranging from “state of mind, temperament” to the verb skapa “to create”, is the noun for
Fate most frequently collocated with the Norns, suggesting, as argued here, a certain
capriciousness or temperamentalness on their part. It is debateable however as to whether
the sample size for these Fate-words is large enough to draw any particular conclusions.
Inevitably there is much discussion of OE wyrd, and the cognate ON urðr, and Bek-
Pedersen lays out the evidence clearly for their distinctive domains, noting that the
development of OE wyrd tells us very little about the cognate’s usage in ON. The
remainder of the chapter probes the rhetorical role that references to Norns and Fate play
in utterances about personal honour, ranging from Hallfreðr vandræðaskald to Gísla
saga, and contains an interesting discussion of prophecy. Here, as in the earlier
discussion of völur as fate-figures, there is no mention of either speech-act or genre-
theory, either of which might have foregrounded the literary functions of utterance and
character-type, and have clarified the distinction between voicing or suppressing a
thought about the future and the formal spá. Can a spá fail as a speech act, that is, not
come true?
The brief conclusion draws the book’s findings neatly together, emphasising that
the prevalence of the concept of Fate in Old Norse by no means characterises its culture
or its heroes as fatalistic: the invocation of the Norns when a hero finds himself facing
difficult choices in matters of personal reputation tends to occlude, for the speaker, if not
for the audience, the cultural imperatives of face and vengeance. Bek-Pedersen’s book is
written in excellent English, and her translations are generally accurate. An exception is
the Hallfreðr-stanza (lv. 6), cited twice (pp. 20, 180), where fornhaldin must qualify sköp
not norna; this misunderstanding calls into question some of conclusions based on it,
notwithstanding the discussion of John Lindow’s correct reading of the line on p. 91.
Some recent work might usefully have been taken into account: the new edition of
Sólarljóð in Skaldic Poetry of the Middle Ages, for example, while closer engagement
with Judy Quinn’s various publications on valkyries as death / wisdom / fatal females
might have been expected; this might have provided more evidence for answering the
book’s first question. With a striking cover photograph taken by the author herself, and
with commendably few typographical errors, The Norns in Old Norse Mythology may not
be the definitive work on the subject, but it achieves a great deal more than the modest
claim to form a basis for future research that Bek-Pedersen puts forward in the
Introduction. It will be indispensable for any scholars working on most aspects of Old
Norse mentalité.

Carolyne Larrington
St John’s College, University of Oxford.
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Title: The Norns in Old Norse Mythology. By Karen Bek-Pedersen.

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