TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

NORNI. 415
praesentis indicat spatia ; Atropos praeteriti fatum est, quia quod
in fuso perfectum est, praeteriti temporis habet speciem ; Lacliesis
futuri, quod etiam illis quae
futura sunt finem suum deus dederit
(see SuppL). Isidore s opinion was quoted on p. 405. 1 The Nor-
nagestssaga bears a striking resemblance to that of Meleager, at
whose birth three moirai tell his fortune : Atropos destines him to
live only till the billet then burning on the hearth be burnt out ;
his mother Althaea plucks it out of the fire. 2 Our modern tales
here exchange the norns or fates for death, Kinderm. no. 44.
Another tale, that of the three spinners (no. 14), depicts them as
ugly old women, who come to help, but no longer to predict ; they
desire to be bidden to the marriage and to be called cousins.
Elsewhere three old women foretell, but do not spin. 3 A folk-tale
(Deutsche sagen no. 9) introduces two maidens spinning
in a cave
of the mountain, and under their table is the Evil one (I suppose
the third norn) chained up ; again we are told of the roof-beam on
which a spinning wife sits at midnight. 4 We must not forget the
AS. term which describes a norn as weaving, Wyrd geivdf
(p. 406) ; and when it is said in Beow. 1386 : ac him Dryhten
forgeaf wigspeda gewiofu (ei Dominus largitus est successuum
bellicorum texturas), this is quite
putting
heathen phraseology, only
God in the place of Wyrd. Gottfried (Trist. 4698), in
describing Blicker of Steinach s purity of mind, expresses himself
thus :
ich wsene, daz infeinen
ze wunder haben gespunnen
und haben in in ir brunnen
geliutert und gereinet ;
I ween that fays spun him as a wonder, and cleansed him in their
fountain .
Saxo Gram. p. 102 uses the Latin words parca, nympha, but
unmistakably he is describing norns : Mos erat antiquis, super
1 The Hymn to Mercury 550-561 names individually some other /zolpat,
still three in number, winged maidens dwelling on Parnassus, their heads
besprinkled with white meal, who prophesy when they have eaten fresh divine
food (f)8dav c8a>8rjv) of honey. Otherwise they are called Opiai
2
Apollodorus i. 8, 2.
3 Altd. wb. 1, 107-8-9-10. Norske eventyr no. 13. Eob. Chambers p.
54-5. MiillenhofFs Schleswigh. s. p. 410. Pentamer. 4, 4.
4 Jul. Schmidt, Reichenfels p. 140.