TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

NORNI. WYRD. 407
third, Skidd, OHG. Scult, AS. Scyld, continued in constant use as
an abstract fern, skuld, scult, scyld, in the sense of debitum, delic-
tum. 1 When Christianity had banished the heathen notions, one
name alone was found sufficient, and soon even that died out,
giving place to new fangled terms such as schicksal, verhangnis
(destiny) and the like, far more cumbrous and unwieldy than the
old simple words. The English and especially the Scotch dialect
seems to have harboured the old word longest : we all know the
weird-sisters in Macbeth, which Shakspeare took from Hollinshed ;
they are also in Douglas s Virgil 80, 48, and the Complaynt of
Scotland (written 1548) mentions, among other fabulous stories,
that of the thre wewdsystirs, (Leyden s ed. Edinb. 1801, p. 99) ;
in Warner s Albions England (first printed 1616) we have the
weirdelves probably meaning the Parcae of the ancients. More
native apparently is the weird lady of the woods! who, when
asked for advice, prophesies out of her cave, Percy s Keliques 3,
220-2. 2
Even in the North, Urdr must have been of more consequence
than the other two, for the fountain by the sacred ash is named
after her, Ur&arbrunnr? and beside it stands the hall from which
the three norns issue ; it is also Urftar orS, word (Seem. 112 a
)
that is chiefly spoken of, and once grimmar urdir dira fata, is
used impersonally, Saem. 216 b . These three virgins allot to every
man his term of life, skapa monnum aldr ; skdp i ardaga (yeardays),
Sn. 18. Ssem. 181 a . I have elsewhere (EA, 750) shown
the technical pertinence of the term skapa to the judicial office of
the norns, 4 to whom for the same reason are ascribed domr and
1 Fornald. sog. 1, 32 Skuld, daughter of an alfkona ; also in Saxo Gram. p.
31, Sculda, n. prop.
2 Conf. Jamieson sub v. weird (weerd, weard). Chaucer already substitutes
fatal sustrin for weirdsysters (Troil. 3, 733. Leg. of gd worn. 2619). In Engl,
dictionaries we find wayward sisters explained by parcae and furiae wardsisters
;
would create no difficulty, but wayward means capricious, and was once waywarden^
in which the warden suggests the Dan. vorren, vorn (Gramm. 2, 675).
What AS. form can there be at the bottom of it? [wa = woe is the usual etym.]
3 This brunnr deserves attention, for the wayfaring wives and fays of the
Mid. Ages also appear habitually at fountains, as the muses and goddesses
of song haunted the same, and particular goddesses, esp. Holda, loved wells and
springs (p. 268). Altogether it is hard often to tell which dame Holda
resembles more, an ancient goddess or a wise-woman.
4 Conf. AS. wyrda gesceaft, Casdm. 224, 6. wyrda gesceapu, Cod. exon. 420,
25. ^OS. wurdhgiscapu (decreta fati), Hel. 113, 7 ; and the OHG. term scep-
hentd, MHG. schepfe (Ottoc. 119b ) and schepfer ; the poet, also a vates, was in