WYRD, FATE AND GEIS Essay, Research Paper
WYRD, FATE AND GEIS
The old Nordic word & # 8216 ; wyrd & # 8217 ; , from which the modern adjectival & # 8216 ; weird & # 8217 ; is derived, is a sort of equivalent word for & # 8216 ; destiny & # 8217 ; . Yet unlike the Greek construct & # 8211 ; with everything preordained, predestined, fixed, wyrd is dynamic, active, a helter-skelter interweaving of picks and effects, and sometimes some really unusual turns & # 8230 ; which is why it & # 8217 ; s called & # 8216 ; weird & # 8217 ; !
Although the basic constructs underlying both Wyrd and destiny semen from the same Indo-European myth group, they & # 8217 ; ve developed in really different ways.
In the Grecian version, Fate is, good, fatalistic: everything & # 8217 ; s fixed, predestined. ( & # 8217 ; Destiny & # 8217 ; , by the way, is the Roman version of the same myth, and is basically the same as that of Fate. ) For every person, the & # 8216 ; three sisters & # 8217 ; ( the three Destinies ) spin a life and weave it into the cloth of life itself, and cut it off, in cold blood, dispassionately, at its terminal. The cloth is held together by a loose cross-warp of opportunity, but opportunity seems to play no active portion in life? s narrative, persons are offered no picks at all.
Unlike the Fates, Wyrd ever offers the human being a pick, but at that place & # 8217 ; s ever a turn! Which is where the construct of wyrd becomes utile. Rather than a cloth of lives, each wholly separate, and merely slackly connected to others by the cross-warp of opportunity, the & # 8216 ; three sisters & # 8217 ; weave a cloth of life. Unlike the level fabric of the Fates, the cloth of Wyrd is more like a Celtic knotwork, writhing, weaving, and turning back upon itself in eldritch ways. Another image is that it & # 8217 ; s like an vastly complex M? bius cringle: somehow, without any clear boundary, the interior becomes the outside, and the outside inside & # 8211 ; there is a boundary of kinds between & # 8216 ; I & # 8217 ; and & # 8216 ; not-I & # 8217 ; , between ourselves and everyone else, but it & # 8217 ; s a clearly eldritch one & # 8230 ;
And like the ultimate in fractal geometry, every point within the cloth seems to incorporate, or at least intersect with, every other point: every minute besides includes everything, everyone, everyplace, everywhen. Hence, whatever it may look like at the clip, there is ever a pick to be had ; the gimmick is that wherever there & # 8217 ; s a pick, there & # 8217 ; s besides ever a turn, which is why Murphy & # 8217 ; s Law is a jurisprudence! Working within this attack to world it would look that people have far more picks, but in order to use these options the single must be able to work with the distorted nature of the Wyrd, instead than seeking to command it or fight against it. One must besides hold to get by with the fact that the Wyrd is eldritch: when everything, everyone, everyplace, everywhen seem to all merge impossibly into here and now, it & # 8217 ; s hard non to fall into terror.
Yet in the original Greek myth, terror would be the natural response to the failure of the person to continue
bravery when run intoing up with Pan ( whose name literally translates as ‘the everything’ ) . ( If you’re familiar with Greek mythology, one of the best ways to understand the nature of the Wyrd is to unify the cold, cold-eyed image of the Destinies with the lively passions of Pan. ) Since ‘the everything’ , by definition, includes those many issues of which 1 is afraid, it’s non surprising if the individual sometimes falls into terror when met with the Wyrd: yet that minute of terror besides contains every opportunity, every possibility. Every point within the Wyrd can be a fulcrum, a topographic point of alteration in the ramping storm of world. Confronting that eldritch minute of terror, one can happen for themselves in a minute of composure at the centre of the storm, a turning point at which mere persons do alter the universe non merely for themselves, but for everyone. Within the Wyrd, there is ever a pick: how one uses that pick is up to them. Yet there is a demand to be cautious, wary, careful, and respectful when covering with Wyrd because like a eldritch game of Snakes and Ladders, each simple-seeming pick within the Wyrd may take one to a topographic point least expected.
The construct of Wyrd does besides incorporate something like fatalism: there & # 8217 ; s ever some sort of eldritch turn, which contains an stoping. It & # 8217 ; s non needfully a actual stoping of life but more frequently a completion, a shutting of some stage, the stoping of some hope or fright. As one of the Anglo-Saxon sagas put it, ( about the consequence of yet another blood-soaked conflict ) & # 8220 ; lo, we suffered many awful Wyrds that dark! & # 8221 ;
In the Gaelic discrepancy of Wyrd, this personal turn within the Wyrd is known as a & # 8216 ; geis & # 8217 ; ( & # 8217 ; geasa & # 8217 ; , in the plural ) : it & # 8217 ; s something that belongs to that individual entirely, no affair whether they should wish it otherwise & # 8230 ; Yet the distorted nature of Wyrd agencies that they will frequently have clear intimations, in progress, of what this geis may be. Each geis is an stoping of some sort, there is non a pick about that, yet sometimes one does hold the pick about what signifier, or what strength, that stoping may take. If they want that pick, it is up to them to acknowledge it ( sooner before the event! ) and act on it as they choose.
Unlike the Greek narrative of Fate, though, there is ever a pick to be had within Wyrd: one needs merely to accept that in every pick at that place & # 8217 ; s ever that eldritch turn someplace & # 8230 ; Faced with the natural outlandishness of life, the person could merely give up, be fatalistic, and allow world axial rotation over the top of them, which will acquire them nowhere. Alternatively, one might seek to contend against the unfairness of destiny, which will besides acquire them nowhere. Or they could accept that world is eldritch & # 8211 ; and in making so, learn to craft a alone relationship with destiny. A eldritch pick in itself, possibly: but which would you take?
A comparison/contrast of Wyrd, destiny, and geis.
