Thursday 12 November 2015

Haugh And Norn

"...a horse or two, now at graze in a haugh..."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XXIV, p. 557.

(A new word to me.)

Gunnhild's daughter, Ragnhild, is widowed and shunned, suspected of murdering one or even two of her three husbands. She passes her days weaving unique and uncanny tapestries showing:

Sigurd killing and being killed;
Odin and Fenris Wolf;
Thor and Jormungand;
Frey and Surt;
Heimdall and Loki.

All but the first of these are individual fights at the Ragnarok. Thus, Ragnhild does not offer to the gods but weaves their doom. The following conclusion is my interpretation but probably not the author's intention: Ragnhild is the incarnation of a norn.

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