The Nornir and the Disir

Ah! And who are they, I wonder?

The reconstructionist route to a Pagan religion is both inspiring and, if you are a bit of a geek such as myself, also enjoyable. But it is a means of learning. What you then do with the information and insight you have garnered is down to you as an individual. And so though there is very, very little evidence for worship of the Nornir, they are the central pillar of my spirituality. Because my modern sensibilities take something from that ancient mythology and make something new of it. This is not wrong, it is the way things work. 

I don't believe for one moment that ancient religious sensibility was a stagnant thing. In each time and place the mythos is reborn. The layers on layers of meaning make the stories fluid structures. As they are supposed to be.

But I question if the worship of the Norns was so sparse as the evidence would suggest. 

Enter the Disir.

Evidence for the worship and reverence for the Disir is easy to come by. The Disir most often are thpught of in terms of female ancestral lines who offer protection to the family, and we know of the Disablot (sacrifice to the Dis). The Disir were also called upon at times of childbirth as well. The Disir, these were The Mothers.

Compare then the Disir to the worship of The Mothers found all throughout the Celtic world. Altars to The Mothers abound all over the place. Iconographically they appear as a triad, often with the symbols of birth, fertility and at the last, death. Interestingly too they also often appear with symbols of weaving. Sound vaguely familiar?

In considering The Mothers, and their possible connections with the Disir, I find myself drawn back full circle to contemplation of the Nornir.

The Nornir who seem always to be mentioned with evil fates, and death and despair, and who despite their obvious power and underlaying centrality seemed to have no following at all...

Personally I come to believe the Disir are another layer of the Nornir. Or vice-versa if you like.

The Disir are the approachable, where the Nornir are not. The Disir are very much a part of this 

Ife, where the Nornir are not. Bigger fish to fry...

But, ultimately they are not separate, and it puts me in mind of the different Hindu approaches to Brahman: approachable Brahman with qualities, and unknowable and impersonal Brahman without qualities.

To me the Disir are the personal side of the Nornir. 

To read it thus is not completely blinkered and self indulgent (!)

The Norse myths, from which most source material for Germanic Paganism can be found, are revelling in word play, double meanings, hidden meanings and layer upon layer myth embedded in one tale. Take the Norse love of Kennings as an example.

Norse scholar Maria Kvilhaug suggests that the mead cup guarded in so many places in Norse myth is but one cup, and all places are the same: layer upon layer of meaning. In "The Well and the Tree" too suggests the three wells and three roots at the foot of the World Tree are really just the one root and well: layers upon layers of meaning. It was the 'in' thing. The Celts too were fond of word play and double meanings. In this context it does not seem inconceivable to me that the Nornir and the Disir were layers of understanding for the same power.

But, of course, others will disagree...