[4] norna ‘of the norns’: The norns are supernatural females representing fate or destiny in Old Norse mythology; cf. Hamð 30/5-6 (NK 274) qveld lifir maðr ecci | eptir qvið norna ‘a person doesn’t live for a night after the norns’ decree’. They need not always signify ill fate, as they do in the present stanza: Gylf (SnE 2005, 18) explains that there are both malevolent norns, who deal out unfortunate lives, and good norns, who shape good lives.
References
- Bibliography
- NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 10 May 2024)
- Not published: do not cite ()