urd

Urd, in Norse mythology, is one of the Norns—the female beings who shape fate. The name Urðr, Old Norse for "fate" or "that which has become," is commonly rendered as Urd in English. She is typically counted among the three principal Norns who determine the destinies of gods and mortals, alongside Verdandi (“the present” or “that which is becoming”) and Skuld (“what shall be” or “future”). While Verdandi is linked to the present and Skuld to the future, Urd is often associated with the past and what has already occurred.

The Norns are said to dwell by the Well of Urd (Urðarbrunnr) beneath the world-tree Yggdrasil. Each day they water the tree and tend its roots, and through their weaving they hold the fateful threads of life. They determine the length of each being’s life and the events that befall them, even though the gods themselves acknowledge the limits of fate.

Urd appears in both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, medieval Icelandic texts that preserve Norse myth. In these works she is part of a broader pantheon of fate-figures who represent the inescapable laws of the cosmos rather than personal deities with fixed personalities. The figure of Urd has had a lasting impact on later Norse-inspired literature and modern adaptations, where she is often treated as a personification of fate or memory.