‘How Can His Word Be Trusted?’: Speaker and Authority in Old Norse Wisdom Poetry

Courtesy of Medievalists.net: "Hávamál itself, a famous but notoriously problematic text probably reflecting multiple layers of composition. It is at the heart of the question of how mankind relates to supernatural beings – a relationship which could be particularly fraught where the transmission of wisdom occurred." The full ext of this article by Brittany Erin Schorn, Doctor of Philosophy, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, may be read in PDF format here.

History, the Norns, and the Nutritive Past

"So, if the ancient Germanic languages didn't really have the three tenses, then the three Norns are probably not simplistically Past, Present and Future. If not, then what are their meanings? And are they a trinity of equals? Not really. The key to the Norns is the figure of Urth, first of the Norns. It is her name given to the Well that nurtures the World Tree; it is her name mentioned over and over in the mythology; it is her name that is cognate with that weird concept of Wyrd." Read the full article by Dawn Work-MaKinne at MatriFocus.