Content area
Full text
* Karen Bek-Pedersen. The Norms in Old Norse Mythology. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic P, 2011. Pp. xvi, 224.
This is a lucid, thorough investigation of supernatural women associated with human destiny as they occasionally act, but more often are sensed, in the background of Old Norse myths and tales. The allusive evidence for nornir and their sisters, scattered through time and literary genres, is carefully weighed with no preconceived notions and litde critical jargon. Three questions have guided the investigation: i) why is fate so often represented in feminine guise? 2) what is the connection between nomir and textilerelated work? and 3) what does it mean to regard fate as a kind of law? (xiv).
Chapter 1 reviews literary sources. Here the Poetic Edda, Snorra-Edda, and skaldic poetry have the majority of references although the nomir are rarely at the focal point of narrative. The sagas of the Icelanders, kings' sagas, mdfornaldarsojjur are more sparing. Testimony is also found in the work of Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen although the differing ideological agendas put the supernatural beings in a less ominous but more negative light. The author cautions: The Old Norse belief system should probably be conceived of in the plural, as several systems, all of which were variations on similar themes" (10). Chapter 2 addresses the central issue "What is a Norn?" in distinction to dúir, valkyrjur, or fylgjur. All are associated with "transitional situations" (15), chiefly batde and violent death. We never see die nomir determining a human fate; it is rather men of action (the nomir appear to have sex-specific interests) who voice their awareness of such a determined fate. Here, Bek-Pedersen, well aware of the absence of sentimentality, might have...