Kvasir Symbol Database

 Web of Wyrd

Entry by Joseph Hopkins and Lauren E. Fountain, March, 2020. Art by Rim Baudey for Mimisbrunnr.info, 2020. Updated December 2023. Several reviewers assisted with material for this entry, and we thank them for their valuable research and contributions.

Description

The Web of Wyrd symbol occurs in two primary forms: The first form, A, consists of a thread- or twig-like structure and the second, B, consists of a geometric representation of A. Both forms consist of three sets of three lines, emphasizing the number nine. Three and nine are central numbers in historic Germanic paganism. (For examples of both symbols, see the illustrations accompanying this article.) Both symbols can be found on various commercial websites described as the “Web of Wyrd” or, similarly but less commonly, “Skuld’s Net”.

Dating

Forms A.1. & A.2. seem to first appear in print in the 1990s, followed by form B somewhere in the 2010s.

Sources

FormS A.1. & A.2.

The first known appearance of the symbol occurs in German occultist Jan Fries’s Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick (1993, Mandrake of Oxford). Two versions of form A occur within the book: Form A.1. appears on the book’s cover, A.2. on its title page, and A.1. appears again on page 326.

The book itself contains a variety of references to English occult figure Aleister Crowley, typical of English language European occult circles in the early 1990s. While Fries’s book contains three instances of the symbol, nowhere in Helrunar does Fries mention or otherwise discuss it. Whether the symbol originates from this text or was otherwise known in occult (and modern pagan circles) at the time remains unclear.

In 1995, form A.2. appears again in a small book published by martial artist Graham (“G.D.”) Butcher, Stav: The Fighting System of Northern Europe. Here Butcher refers the symbol simply as “the web”:

The underlying concept of reality is the web which holds everything together in all dimensions including time. It is in essence very simple and can be depicted as nine lines locked together in such a way as to form the building blocks of the universe. (Butcher 1995: 7)

This explanation is accompanied by an illustration depicting the symbol alongside the Younger Futhark runic row, but with some modifications (Butcher 1995: 7, fig. 2). According to Butcher, the symbol contains the entirety of the runic alphabet(s):

The first tool is the runes which are extracted from the web and reveal sixteen different aspects of reality, not by having fixed meanings but by their associations. By learning and performing the stances the runes become part of the self and we begin to integrate ourselves into the web of reality. (Butcher 1995: 8).

Another depiction of the symbol appears later in the book, this time as a representation of a Stav stance (Butcher 1995: 19).

Stav, a fighting system, was developed and first promoted by Norwegian martial artist Ivar Hafskjold, evidently sometime in the early 1990s (Butcher’s 1995 publication makes for the earliest mention we have found of Stav to date). Hafskjold claims that he inherited knowledge of the martial art from family members and decided to teach it to others. While no record of such a tradition exists in the Old Norse corpus or anywhere else exterior to Hafskjold’s claim of inheritance, Stav makes for a unique and notable development in the modern reception of North Germanic topics. (Readers can find a 2009 account of the development of Stav from Hafskjold at his website here.)

While Butcher’s work indicates that the symbol was known as the web as early as 1995, when the symbol became commonly known as the web of wyrd is unclear. The phrase web of wyrd does not stem from a direct translation of a historically attested Old Norse phrase but seems to first occur—in English, at least—in the writings of English psychologist Brian Bates, most notably in his novel The Web of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer (1983, Century). That said, an independent development and use of the phrase is also possible due to the traditional focus on alliteration in both the ancient Germanic corpus and in its modern reception (see discussion in the Analysis section below regarding norns weaving ørlǫgþáttir, a semantically comparable phrase).

As one reviewer of the present entry noted to the present author, the ‘twig’ version of form A, form A.1., as it appears on the cover of Fries’s book (and subsequently on the internet) may be influenced by the concept of the nine wuldortanas mentioned in the Nigon Wyrta Galdor, an Old English poem popularly known as the Nine Herbs Charm (Readers can find an in-depth translation of the charm with commentary on Mimisbrunnr.info here). The charm mentions that the god Odin (Old English Wōden) uses nine wuldortanas to defeat a venomous serpentine entity (a wyrm). Translators frequently render the phrase wuldortanas as ‘glory-twigs’ or some similar equivalent. (As an aside, the first element of this compound, wuldor is ultimately cognate with Old Norse Ullr, the name of a deity, the son of the the goddess Sif, so ‘glory’ might not entirely cover what the charm-author intended to communicate with the compound). Without accompanying then-contemporary commentary from Fries on this, readers are left to wonder if the similarity is simple coincidence but an internet search reveals at least a few groups making this connection (we have decided not to link to these websites here). The association between the ‘twig form’ of the symbol and the wuldortanas also seems likely to occur independently among readers familiar with both.

Form B

A simplified, geometric version of the symbol appears to have developed from the forms that occur in Fries 1993 and Butcher 1995 and we hereafter refer to this new form as form B. Form B appears to have become popular in modern Heathen communities on the internet, where one may find it described, for example, as containing the entirety of the runic alphabet(s) (just as in Butcher 1995: 8).

Use of the symbol is in some cases datable by way of print media. For example, the symbol appears on American black metal band Panopticon’s logo on the 2019 EP “The Crescendo of Dusk” (Bindrune Recordings, images viewable on Discogs.com) and at the time of writing image search engine results yield numerous examples of form B tattoos and use of the symbol on objects sold by vendors at online marketplaces such as Etsy.

Analysis

While the symbol appears by every indication to be a modern development, the concept (or concepts) it reflects reach back deep into the ancient Germanic corpus. North Germanic sources repeatedly reference a complex of conceptually similar supernatural women—the ghostly valkyries, norns, and dísir—closely associated with with the concept of wyrd.

A brief dive into historical linguistics is necessary to understand some of the topics mentioned in association with this symbol. As used in this article and with the symbol, the word wyrd refers to a broad concept of ‘fate’ understood among the ancient Germanic peoples: Old English wyrd, Old High German wurt, and Old Norse urðr all descend from Proto-Germanic *wurđiz, a noun descending from the verb *werþanan, meaning, essentially, ‘to become’. (The asterisk indicates that the word is reconstructed by philologists, specialists in the science of historical linguistics. For etymological discussion, see for example, Orel 2003: 475 — note also that the Old Norse compound noun ørlǫg falls in a similar semantic field and is often glossed as fate or wyrd).

Deriving from Old English wyrd, modern English’s sense of weird as ‘strange’ first occurs in the 19th century, but before that, the word, perhaps fabric-like, indicated a twist or turn of ‘fate’ (with the caveat that the borrowed word fate is more of a rough gloss than a straightforward translation of the concept). The Old Norse cognate to Old English wyrd, urðr, receives extensive use in the North Germanic corpus, occurring notably in the compound Urðarbrunnr (‘Wyrd’s Well, Wyrd’s Spring’), and the name of a specific entity, the norn Urðr, who personifies the concept. (For focused discussion on the etymology of the word wyrd and its cognates, see for example OED 2020).

The well Urðarbrunnr has an important place in North Germanic cosmology, as it is closely connected to the cosmic central sacred tree, Yggdrasil. According to the eddic poem Vǫluspá:

I know an ash stands,
it’s called Yggdrasill;
a glorious and immense tree,
wet with white and shining mud;
from there dew falls to the dales,
forever standing green over Wyrd’s Well (Urðarbrunnr). (Hopkins translation, 2020)

The analogy of textile production—weaving, spinning—as a means of producing wyrd by groups of supernatural female figures occurs a handful of times in the Old Norse corpus. In the eddic poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, norns visit the infant Helgi and spin his wyrd from threads. They arrive at night at Helgi’s family gathering, and bid him great fortune: Beneath the night sky and with ‘great might’, they spin, for lack of a better translation, wyrd-threads (Old Norse plural nominative ørlǫgþáttir, accusative ørlǫgþáttu—semantically, a compound one might render as ‘web of wyrd’).

In the Old Norse poem Darraðarljóð, found in Njáls saga, a comparatively famous example of valkyries weaving wyrd occurs. The poem describes 12 valkyries chanting and weaving the wyrd of those who will die in battle at the Battle of Clontarf (1014 CE). As the valkyries chant, the poet describes a hidden onlooker’s terror in noticing that the valkyries’ weaving equipment consists of human entrails, body parts, and weapons of war. Eventually the valkyries disassemble their equipment and ride off in different directions, presumably to choose the wyrd of the battlefield dead.

In a stanza early in the eddic poem Vǫlundarkviða, three valkyrie sisters spin linen by a lakeside. This appears to signal readers a strong wyrd association: Their mysterious presence and actions subsequently set the stage for the dramatic events of the rest of the poem. Notably in this context, the so-called Franks Casket (8th century) depicts events known to us from Vǫlundarkviða, alongside Christian and Roman legendary material. One side of the casket, the so-called Bargello panel, depicts three figures who appear to be spinning (or conducting some similar activity). This may reference the influence of the valkyries (or norns) in the widely known Germanic narrative reflected in Vǫlundarkviða (readers may view the panel as part of the British Museum’s collection here).

These supernatural women associated with wyrd are entities that appear to have a deep history in the ancient Germanic corpus: Scholars frequently connect them to depictions of goddess-like figures found on shrines in Germanic areas occupied by Roman colonial forces. These shrines frequently depict three figures with a variety of items, such as diapers and fruit. Veneration of these figures appear to have continued until at least the Mothers Night (Old English Mōdraniht) attested by Anglo-Saxon historian Bede (and no doubt related to the Old Norse dísablót and Swedish disaþing) (see discussion in, for example, Simek 2007 [1993]: 61-62, 204-208, 220).

Along with the wuldortanas mentioned above in connection with form A.1., it appears that some understanding of some or all of the above ‘wyrd-weaving’ attestations inspired the creation of the development, diffusion, and popularity of the symbol. Although its exact course of development remains unclear, somewhere along the way the symbol became associated with the threads handled by the above discussed groups of supernatural female figures associated with birth and death. Today the symbol is prominent in both enthusiast and modern heathen circles, evidently making it one of the first modern era symbols to develop and find welcome among ancient Germanic studies-associated subcultures within the last few decades.

ABOUT THE IMAGES

This entry contains three original pieces by Rim Baudey for Mimisbrunnr.info, all produced by the artist in 2020. They are as follows:

• I.: Rendition of form A.1. (‘twig form’).

• II.: Form A.2.

• III.: Form B.

Readers can find wallpaper-quality versions by clicking the images. Please contact Mimisbrunnr.info for image use requests.

See Also

• Bee, an insect associated with wyrd and groups of female supernatural figures in various attestations in the ancient and modern Germanic record

References

• Bates, Brian. 1983. The Web of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer. Century.

• Butcher, G. D. 1995. Stav: The Fighting System of Northern Europe. Stav Marketing.

• Fries, Jan. 1993. Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick. Mandrake of Oxford.

• "weird, n.". OED Online. March 2020. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/226915?rskey=OkUCzz&result=1&isAdvanced=false (accessed April 08, 2020).

• Orel, Vladimir. 2003. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Brill.

• Simek, Rudolf. 2007 [1993]. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D. S. Brewer.