When the Norns Have Spoken: Time and Fate in Germanic PaganismFairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2004 - 187 pages This book argues that within Germanic paganism, considered not as mere cult but as a system of beliefs, it is possible to identify a conceptually coherent understanding of fate which detaches that idea from time, and connects it instead with an implicit theses about the nature of truth as written. Germanic cosmogony, as represented in such precise images as a worldtree, provides a context for an analysis of specific metaphors for the workings of fate as woven or spun by such figures as the Norns - the Norse goddesses of destiny. Employing both philosophical and mythic-linguistic considerations, this book also offers new insights into the persistence of a residual paganism in the understanding of fate following the Christian conversion. Anthony Winterboume is an independent scholar. |
Contents
| 11 | |
Paganism in Myth and Cult | 20 |
Mythical Space and Time | 42 |
Cosmogony and the WorldTree | 60 |
Spinning and Weaving Fate | 84 |
The Logic of Fatalism | 104 |
From Pagan Fate to Christian Providence | 120 |
Notes | 146 |
Bibliography | 170 |
Index | 183 |
Other editions - View all
When the Norns Have Spoken: Time and Fate in Germanic Paganism Anthony Winterbourne No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract ancient Anglo-Saxon Assmann Bauschatz belief in fate Cahen Cambridge Cassirer causality Christian concept of fate connection context cosmic cosmogony cosmos cult practices cultic cultures Cumont death destiny divine djet Eddic Eddic Poetry Egyptian example expressed fatalism fatalist feud Fletcher function Germanic mythology Germanic paganism gnostic goddess gods Greek Grimnismal Gruyter Gylfaginning heathen Heliand human Ibid Iceland Indo-European Indo-European Studies insists language least literature Lithuanian mythology logical London magic man's matter means Moirai monotheism myth Norns Norse mythology Norsemen noted Oðin Old Norse Onians Orkneyinga Saga Oxford past philosophical poem Poetic Edda Poetry Ragnarok relation religion religious ritual roots runes Rydberg Saga says Scandinavian scholars seems seen sense shamanistic significance simply somehow Spengler spinning stanza symbolic temporal thinking thought tion tradition trans Translated tree true ture University Press Voluspa weaving word world ash-tree world-tree wyrd Yggdrasill
Popular passages
Page 43 - Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equably without relation to anything external...
Page 16 - The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Page 20 - Now entertain conjecture of a time, When creeping murmur, and the poring dark, Fills the wide vessel of the universe. From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, The hum of either army stilly sounds, That the...
Page 84 - In the Foretime, even to the germ of Being, Nothing appears of shape to indicate That cognizance has marshalled things terrene, Or will (such is my thinking] in my span. Rather they show that, like a knitter drowsed, Whose fingers play in skilled unmindfulness, The Will has woven with an absent heed Since life first was ; and ever will so weave.
Page 104 - tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all : Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes ?
Page 45 - It is for this reason that religious man has always sought to fix his abode at the "center of the world." // the world is to be lived in, it must be founded — and no world can come to birth in the chaos of the homogeneity and relativity of profane space. The discovery or projection of a fixed point — the center — is equivalent to the creation of the world...
Page 42 - Nothing puzzles me more than time and space; and yet nothing troubles me less, as I never think about them"- Lamb, letter to Southey, 9 Aug.