Wyrd and words: Origins from Myth to Language

Wyrd is a concept in the Anglo-Saxon cultural consciousness that corresponds to fate.

The word's origins are traced back to Norse Mythology as urðr and anglicized as Urd. It's Modern English ancestor is weird which retains its meaning only dialectally. The Old English of wyrd is derived from the common Germanic of wurđíz.

From a Norse mythological perspective, wyrd appears in the name of the Holy Well of Fate or the Urðarbrunnr which it is said the Norns, three female entity beings govern the threads of fate. They draw water from the holy well and till the soil to nurture the mythical tree of life which connects everything and nothing.

The origin of the word, Norn, is unknown but it believed to represent "the twining of" related to threading and/or threads of fate. The Norns roughly correspond to the Ancient Greek, Moirai or Three Fates.

In Greek mythology, the word fate is believed to be a fixed allotment upon birth spun by the three Moirai: Clotho, Lechesis and Atropos. A pre-woven thread of reality imparted at birth with the inability to re-work one's circumstance.

From Greek to Norse Mythology, we are able to see both sides of wyrd and fate. Thus, fate originating from a fixed allotment and progressing to wyrd a dynamic state premised upon how you shape it and/or co-create it based on your actions and reactions; thus, foundationed upon the Law of Cause and Effect.

Check out the poem "Wyrd worker" from the collection, Prometheus Rebound and Other Mythology.