Yggdrasil · The World Tree and Its Places
Urðarbrunnr, the Well of Urðr
A well beneath the tree where, in Snorri’s account, the gods hold court.
In Blackwell’s translation
The third root of the ash is in heaven, and under it is the holy Urdar-fount. 'Tis here that the gods sit in judgment. Every day they ride up hither on horseback over Bifrost, which is called the Æsir Bridge.
- I. A. Blackwell (translator), The Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson (the Prose Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Gylfaginning, the passage on the three roots Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
In Gylfaginning, Urðarbrunnr lies beneath the root of the tree that stands in heaven, and the gods hold their court there. The Norns take water from the well and pour it, with the clay around it, over the tree so that its branches do not rot. Völuspá has the ash grow green by Urðr’s well.
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), chapters XV-XVI (Brodeur translation)
- Völuspá (Poetic Edda)
- Wikipedia contributors, Yggdrasil (opens in a new tab)
Names and background
The name means wellspring of Urðr. That could point to urðr, the Germanic idea of fate, or to the norn called Urðr. The sources show the well in different lights. Völuspá calls it a lake beneath the tree, where the norns set the laws and fates of men. The Prose Edda makes it one of three wells under three roots, reached by the gods daily over Bifröst, and says its water and mud are poured over the tree to keep it from rotting. Hávamál 112 speaks of sitting by the well of Urd, but that stanza is unclear and widely debated.
- Wikipedia contributors, Urðarbrunnr (opens in a new tab)
Evidence beyond the Eddas
Beyond the Eddas, the skald Kormákr (10th century) has Urðr rising from a wellspring, and Eilífr Goðrúnarson (late 10th century) gives a Christianised version in which the well is tied to Christ, Rome and the south. Scholars read Eilífr in several ways, one being that Christ is shown taking over the role of fate. Adam of Bremen's 11th-century account of a spring at the foot of a sacred tree at Uppsala has also been compared with the well.
- Wikipedia contributors, Urðarbrunnr (opens in a new tab)
Later reception
The Norns at the well were a popular subject for illustrators: Fredrik Sander (1893), Lorenz Frølich (1895) and Karl Ehrenberg (1901). A Norwegian women's magazine, Urd, also took the name.
Related
- The Norns: Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld The Norns draw water from the well