Seiðr Loom

Norn

Verðandi

The second of the three Norns at Urðr's well; she is named in only two passages, and her name means 'becoming' or 'what is happening'.

Verðandi is the second of the three Norns who live by Urðr's well beneath Yggdrasil. The sources tell us almost nothing about her. She is a name in Völuspá's list of the maidens who carve on wood, make laws and allot lives Völuspá 20, and Snorri repeats the name when he describes the three maids who "determine the period of men's lives" Gylfaginning 15. No poem gives her a speech, a deed or a story of her own.

Her name is a present participle, "becoming" or "coming into being", formed from the same verb as Urðr's. That is why the three Norns are often presented today as Past (Urðr), Present (Verðandi) and Future (Skuld). The names do invite that reading, but no medieval source spells it out.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Urth is one named, Verthandi the next,— On the wood they scored,— and Skuld the third.
Völuspá 20 Her only appearance in the Poetic Edda: a name in the list of three.
out of that hall come three maids, who are called thus: Urdr, Verdandi, Skuld
Gylfaginning 15 Snorri repeats the three names from Völuspá.

Related

The Norns nornir The female powers who fix the lives and deaths of gods and men: three named Norns by the well under Yggdrasil, and many lesser norns who come to every birth. Urðr The first-named of the three Norns, who gives her name to the well beneath Yggdrasil where the gods hold court; her name means 'fate' or 'what has happened'. Skuld The third and youngest Norn at Urðr's well, and also a valkyrie: the only figure the Eddas place in both groups. Urðarbrunnr The holy well beneath Yggdrasil where the Norns live and the gods hold their daily court; its white water keeps the world-tree green. Yggdrasil Yggdrasill The world-ash at the centre of the Norse cosmos: its roots reach the realms of gods, giants and the dead, and the gods hold court beneath it every day.