Wyrd (Earth, virtual, mission, myths, church)

[Buttons*]

I wasnt sure if I should have put this in the Pagan forum or place it here.

I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the goddess Wyrd? I was reading Beowulf earlier today, and there is mention of her. She is what controls fortune and fate. This of course is an Old English goddess... so I should be asking the Druids or Norsemen about it

Are there any other texts that include this goddess on a different or more involved level?

If I find any, I'll be sure to post them. Thanks all

[Buttons*]

http://www.wyrdsmiths.com/index.php?fid=wyrdmyth

talks about the Wyrd sisters. Three sisters that control fate. Seems a bit like Greek mythology to me... with the Fates... ya know....

[kreeden]

Looks like you answered your own question .

[Zephyr]

It isn't a goddess, but rather a force. It is pretty much fate. Comes from Anglo-Saxon weorþan (To become). It is controlled by the Norns (Think like the Greek Fates, 3 women making a thread). Anything else you want to know?

[Buttons*]

do you happen to know of anymore writings that mention Wyrd? Religious text preferrably

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by Buttons*

do you happen to know of anymore writings that mention Wyrd? Religious text preferrably

I'd check the eddas. Not exactly sure where you'd find mention, but pretty much anything involving the Norns should work.

[Willamena]

These are excerpts from Barbara Walker's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:

The three witches in Shakespeare's MacBeth were called Weird Sisters after the three Fates, or Norns, corresponding to the Greek Moerae and the Celtic Morrigan; that is, the Triple Goddess of past, present and future. Weird was a Saxon name of the death-goddess or Crone, who often stood for the whole trinity. Her name was variously given as Wyrd, or Wurd, or Urd, meaning both "Earth" and the Word of Fate's immuatable law.[1] As Beowulf said, "Every man in this life will go lay him down on the bed where Wyrd has decided to nail him."[2]

This passage from an early Saxon romance might throw light on the eastern yogi's celebrated bed of nails, symbol of his submission to the Goddess. Fate was karma, a concept virtually identical with that of Weird.

The Triple Goddess was much opposed by churchmen. A 12th-Century Bishop of Exeter scolded his people for inviting the Three Sisters into the house after a birth, to cast a good destiny for the newborn, and making offerings to them on a table prepared "with three knives for the service of the fairies."[4]

Nevertheless, the Fairy Godmothers or Weird Sisters continued to be invited. Four centuries later in Tudor England they were still prayed to appear at the cradle of a newborn infant, "for to set to the babe what shall befall to him."[5]

[1] Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology
[2] Norma Lorre Goodrich, Midieval Myths
[4] Richard Cavendish, The Powers of Evil
[5] W. Carew Hazlitt, Faiths and Folklore of the British Isles

[Radio Frequency X]

What is Wyrd? Here is an answer.

"The ash [Yggdrasil] is of all trees the biggest and best. Its branches spread out over all the world and extend across the sky . . . . The third root of the ash extends to heaven, and beneath that root is a well which is very holy, called Weird's well. ---The Prose Edda, Anthony Faulkes translation, p. 17. "

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by Radio Frequency X

What is Wyrd? Here is an answer.

"The ash [Yggdrasil] is of all trees the biggest and best. Its branches spread out over all the world and extend across the sky . . . . The third root of the ash extends to heaven, and beneath that root is a well which is very holy, called Weird's well. ---The Prose Edda, Anthony Faulkes translation, p. 17. "

I like you. You make me have to do less work.

[nutshell]

This is very interesting. This word is used in the popular fantasy novel Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I just finished it and the word was used to denote fate or destiny. I wondered where it came from....I kind of assumed he made it up, but it looks like I was wrong. He did his research like a good writer should.