Norns Twisting Threads

1 It was at the start of time that the eagles shrieked,
the sacred waters poured down from Himinfell;
then Helgi, the strong-minded man,
was born to Borghild in Bralund.

2 Night fell on the estate, then came norns,*
those who shaped fate for the prince;
they said the war-leader should be most famous
and that he’d appear the best of princes.

3 They plied very strongly the strand of fate,
as strongholds were breaking in Bralund;
they prepared the golden threads
and fastened it in the middle under the moon’s hall.

4 East and west they concealed its ends,
the prince possessed all the land between;
Neri’s kinswoman to the north
threw one fastening; she said it would hold for ever.

5 Just one thing concerned the kinsman of the Ylfings
and that girl who’d given birth to the dear boy:
one raven said to another—he sat on a high tree,
lacking for food: ‘I know something.

6 ‘The son of Sigmund stands in his mail-coat,
one day old; now day has dawned!
sharp his eyes like fighters;
he’s the friend of wolves, we should be cheerful.’

7 To the men it seemed that he was a prince,
they said to one another that good years had come;
the noble leader himself came from the tumult of battle
to bring a splendid leek to the young lord.

8 He gave Helgi a name, gave him Hringstadir,
Sunfell, Snowfell, and Sigarvoll,
Hringstod, Highmeadow, and Himinvangi,
a tested blood-snake to Sinfiotli’s brother.


- Poetic Edda, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I


("norns: female fate figures who determine the lives of men. They are associated with textile work; here they twist separate strands of fate into a strong rope." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)