Winifred Hodge Rose
Luck, wyrd, and the interactions between the two play a vital role in the history, philosophy, metaphysics and activities of Germanic peoples throughout history. Here I will sort out some of the many strands that seem to me most significant and useful. These can give us an idea of the important and pervasive role luck and its relationship with wyrd played among our elder kin, including the roles of luck and wyrd in forcible conversions from Heathen troth to Christianity. These ponderings may be useful for modern Heathens in understanding the processes of luck and wyrd in our own lives, both as individuals and as Heathen collectives. I argue that there is a close connection between a belief in luck, and one’s ethical choices and actions, and I explore aspects of this connection in my essay here.
Ancient Heathens had more than one word for general “luck”, and many compound words to show the different types and domains of luck. “Sael, saell, saeld,” appeared widely in the old Germanic languages, and meant “luck, good fortune, prosperity, blessing, happiness,” and related concepts. Here are some examples of different kinds of “saell” a person might have:
Arsaell = luck with fertility of land, crops, and livestock.
Byrsaell = luck with seafaring and sailing weather.
Kinsaell = luck in one’s kindred: numerous, prosperous, frithful, of good reputation.
Sigrsaell = victory luck, battle luck.
Vinsaell = luck with friendships and patronage.
“Heill” was another word for luck, and included the concepts of health, wholeness, luck, good fortune, blessing, and so on. In terms of modern languages, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two, though when I look through ancient writings I get the impression of subtle differences. An important type of heill one might possess is “Ordheill,” the luck or power of using words to cause either good or harm, as in blessing or cursing. The scholar Vilhelm Gronbech describes Ordheill as a “wish charged with power,” expressed verbally (p. 147). Another meaning for Ordheill is that people speak well of the person who has it; he or she has the good luck of an excellent reputation. “Mannheill” is the good fortune of getting along well with others (“mann” means “person”). “Illa heill” is bad luck.
Old English had the word “sped” (pronounced “speed”), still used occasionally in old-fashioned phrases such as “Godspeed” or “God speed the work / journey, etc.,” meaning good fortune and success in one’s endeavor: literally God’s luck or blessing on the work. “Speed” meant luck, success, prosperity, wealth, abundance, opportunity. Its opposite, “wansped” (relating to “waning”) meant poverty, misfortune, failure, lack. Of great importance, as I shall discuss in the next sections, was the King’s Speed and the good it could bring to battle, land, fertility, prosperity, opportunities and so forth. The king held an enormous amount of luck within himself, and could spread it around into many domains of action, while according to an old Scandinavian proverb, “poor folk have but one luck, and that a slender one.” (Gronbech vol. 1, p. 138.) Other types of “speed” that one might have include “freondsped” or friend-speed, and “tuddorsped”, which is good fortune with one’s offspring: many healthy children blessed with prosperity, good luck, and offspring of their own.
The whole Germanic concept of “luck” was complex, nuanced, many-faceted, with many words used to express these facets. In fact, Gronbech suggests it makes more sense to use the term “lucks,” plural, because of the many types and characteristics of luck that were referred to in ancient sources, folklore and folk practices. His view was that these lucks were indeed of different kinds and sources, not all expressions of one single thing. The difference between a king and a thrall was not simply the amount of luck each possessed, but the character of their lucks, as well (p. 171-2).
“Every luck is of its own sort. To go out fishing with a cattle-breeder’s particular luck would give the same result as if one tried to catch cod with a ploughshare; to rule and give fertility to the East with a luck that pertained to the West was no less topsy-turvy.” (Gronbech p. 168.) Let’s explore here some of the important roles of these “lucks” in the various domains of life.
The Nature and Role of Luck
Gronbech discusses at length the connection between luck and rede, and I believe this is a very important insight, useful for modern Heathen life as well as ancient. “Rede” refers to advice, counsel, guidance, but also to one’s own rede to oneself: one’s experience, learning, thought, intuitions applied to solve problems, meet challenges, and generally conduct one’s life successfully. Our ancient kin easily recognized those who were “rede-y”, guided by wise rede whether from others or within themselves, versus those who were “unrede-y” and just seemed to get everything wrong no matter how hard they seemed to try. When this unrede-y person was a king, this spelled disaster for his reign.
Rede can be seen as a process, a series of steps leading to action and outcome. By interacting with others (including spiritual beings such as deities, disir, fylgja) one mingles their rede with one’s own thoughts and motivations to form an idea, then a resolution to act in some way, then a plan, and then applies one’s own strengths, abilities, resources, and connections to carry out this resolution. This action can be anything: planting a vegetable garden, going into battle or a sports game, frithweaving, planning your home-making or work tasks for the week, traveling, studying, whatever. The outcome of these actions shows what kind of luck one has, and the lucks of any who are associated with the process.
It is not only the outcome, it is the entire process that involves and displays one’s lucks or unluck. All of the steps in the process, says Gronbech, are nothing other than luck applied to one’s own or to others’ affairs (p. 144). One’s luck is intimately associated with one’s rede, both internal and external sources of rede. This insight leads directly to the role of spirit beings in our luck or unluck, a topic I discuss in following sections.
“Luck stretches in one continuity from the core of man’s mind to the horizon of his social existence, and this, too, is indicated in the meaning of rede, which comprises the state or position of a man, his influence and competence. The inner state of a man in luck is described in Icelandic as a whole mind, heill hugr. …The man of whole mind is true to his kin and his friends, stern to his enemies, and easy to get on with, when lesser men come seeking his aid. His redes are really good gifts to the receiver – whole redes, in Icelandic heill radh.” (Gronbech p. 148-9)
“The ancient word rede…is a perfect illustration of Teutonic psychology. When given to others, it means counsel; when applied to the luck working within the mind, it means wisdom, or a good plan, and from an ethical point of view, just and honest thoughts. But the word naturally includes the idea of success, which accompanies wise and upright devising, and on the other hand power and authority, which are the working of a sound will.” (Gronbech p. 148)
A good example of the importance of wise rede can be seen when comparing a king possessing war-speed, versus a traditional berserker as we read of in the sagas. The berserker might be equally victorious in his battles, but he lacks rede, forethought, ethical motives and behavior. His comrades and leader might find his victory luck useful, but this is counterbalanced by the degree of unluck he brings to all parts of life not relating to battle.
Here we see that luck, rede, and right thought and action interact and lead into and out of each other. Luck enables one to keep frith, honor, friendship, promises and oaths, to carry out plans successfully, and to refrain from acting dishonorably. It’s interesting to note that the words most often used to translate “good” and “evil” in the Gothic-language Bible are respectively “sels” and “unsels”, the same words listed above (“saell”) to mean luck and unluck. All of these points show a connection between luck and ethical action.
Downsides of Luck
By the same token, unluck can both lead to, and result from, unethical and unwise action. Gronbech points out that great unluck results from killing a woman, a dishonorable act, and that “unluck will sooner or later arise in a place where dishonor has manifested” (Gronbech p. 155). Luck and unluck are considered contagious, able to spread from person to person, and between persons and places or objects. The luck of healing is one form of contagion, where the healer’s healing-luck is spread through his or her luck-power to the person, animal or place that needs healing. Another form of luck-contagion is the power a king has of passing his luck on to his followers: directly by his presence, word or touch, or indirectly through his gifts of objects such as weapons or ornaments which carry his luck, and even through word of mouth messages sent to the recipient of his luck. The unluck of a dishonorable act such as oath-breaking can spread to friends and associates of the actor, especially if they had supported him or her in some way or were oath-bound to the actor.
Luck seems like a very positive phenomenon! But it definitely had its downsides in the thought and experiences of our elder kin. Relationships among people involve power in various forms, and they regarded luck as the essence of this power to win, to succeed, thrive, and even to survive. All depended on the type and amount of luck one had, as well as that of one’s kin, associates, patrons and allies. In deciding whether to risk a confrontation or challenge toward another person or group, it was essential to examine the degree of luck your side could bring to bear, and the luck of the other side. “You have not luck to measure yourself against a king,” Kveldulf says to his angry son Thorulf, as Gronbech quotes (p.157), and goes on to say that “every trial of strength between men was a strife between two powers of luck, a spiritual conflict.”
When two lucks clashed with one another, or a powerful luck attacked a weaker one, dire consequences resulted for the weaker party. “If a plan really has life in it, then it can only be checked by a greater luck killing it. …It (the greater luck) can lay itself like a nightmare upon a poorer man’s luck and make it barren and confused (Gronbech p. 144).”
“The luck of every yeoman, every chieftain, was a character, with its peculiarities, its strengths and weaknesses, its eccentricities, and linked throughout to a certain property (Gronbech p. 171).” The “property” to which luck is linked could be a kingdom, a farm, a region, even a hut, as well as weapons and other objects; this will be further discussed, below. The peculiarities and characteristics of one’s luck or unluck shaped one’s life and deeds. Many – perhaps all – of the tragic deeds and circumstances that we read about in the sagas and poems can be considered the result of the hero’s luck or unluck: all the confusion with Siegfried / Sigurd and Brunnhilde / Sigrdrifa, Gudrun, and others that we read about in the tale of the Nibelungs / Volsungs are at root the workings of luck in their lives, showing the power and inescapability of luck and unluck. Gronbech quotes the Volsungasaga: “Sinfjotli is taunted with his violent career in these words: ‘All unluck came upon you, you killed your brothers (p. 152).’”
An understanding of the Germanic king’s luck gives a good deal of insight into the nature of luck itself. As Gronbech notes, Germanic kings had very little formal power, in terms of a constitution, laws, statutes, any kind of structural authority: a king held his position by virtue of his superior luck, and if he was “redeless” he was in a very poor position to exert any authority or rule (pp.161-3). The idea of “divine right” of kings had not yet developed; on the other hand, the king’s speed or luck was a clear indicator of the Gods’ blessing on both king and folk. If we stop to think about it, there is a big difference between “divine right” and “the Gods’ blessing as shown by luck, speed and rede.” Divine right is claimed, rather than proven, and rests only upon authoritative statements by church and royalty themselves. A king’s luck (and the luck of any leader), on the other hand, is continually proven by his rede and deeds, and if it fails, his folk have reason enough to disregard, disrespect, distrust, or even displace him.
The Roots of Luck and Unluck
So, where does all this luck and speed come from? How do people gain it or lose it? There are a number of sources for luck, and causes for its loss. One root that was very important to our elder kin was the hamingja, the luck and spiritual power, that could reside in objects and in land. This phenomenon is an example of the ‘contagiousness’ of luck. An heirloom, a weapon, jewelry and ornaments, even household and farm implements – anything used by humans, really, would pick up luck or unluck from its users. The longer the item was used in a rede-full, successful, appropriate way, the more luck it accumulated. Thus, heirlooms passed down in the family line were very powerful donors of luck to each of their owners and their kin.
Hamingja-filled or luck-filled objects (including parcels of land), used as gifts and pledges, were of fundamental importance to significant alliances of any kind: marriage, political alliance and patronage, frithweaving, partnerships and business contracts. It was important to speak or ‘lay’ the luck honestly into the gift by stating that the luck or value is being given with the object at the time of giving. This is an expression of the virtue of generosity: giving the complete gift, with its luck, with a true heart. Often people tried to ‘cheat’ by giving an object, but either failing to give the luck / hamingja with it, or by ill-speaking or ill-wishing the exchange, thus nullifying the luck or changing it to bad luck. The same principles applied if the object was being purchased or bartered: any luck inherent in the object was an important part of its value, and needed to be handled appropriately.
The hamingja and luck of an object, a piece of land, even a domestic animal, was damaged or destroyed by the following deeds: betrayal, breaking one’s word or bargain, by unworthy use or misuse of it, and even by unauthorized use. For example, unauthorized ‘borrowing’ of a bull to service one’s cow, and then returning the bull, would damage the bull’s potency, its ability to sire hamingja-filled offspring. The quality of its seed would decline, and thus decrease the luck of its owner. The luck given by the potent bull depends on the proper relationship between owner and bull, and when this relationship is damaged by unauthorized use – an expression of disrespect and dishonor – luck is lost all around. (Gronbech p. 78)
Looking at ancient tales and poetry, it is easy to see how valuables gained by theft, especially multiple theft such as stealing a dragon’s hoard which was itself stolen by the dragon, brought great unluck with them, such as told in the Nibelungenlied with its cursed treasure hoard acting balefully down the generations. The same did not, apparently, always apply to battle loot, especially if the loot was then given to the victorious warriors with words of praise by their leader in a luck-filled symbel.
Another source of unluck was power-filled words used against a person. “Words could bite through luck and fix themselves in a man. …They had life in them, they would creep about inside the victim, hollowing him out until there was no strength left in him, or they would change him and mould him according to their own nature.” (Gronbech p.146.) This was an important reason for the boasting and threats exchanged with the enemy right before a battle began: each trying to weaken the others’ battle-speed through the power carried in words. This is also how curses and spells would work, by damaging the victim’s luck, whether it was health-luck, love-luck, wealth-luck, or whatever. These are expressions of ordheill, word-luck, which also could be used for blessing and good luck.
Luck was also gained, as discussed earlier, by association with people of good rede and strong luck, especially kings or chieftains. These leaders obtained and held their positions through their rede, luck and speed, giving full proof that they had luck in abundance. The leaders gained loyal followers through the exercise of their rede (good counsel, wise plans) and luck / speed (successful deeds), and the followers gained luck themselves by association. Luck could be passed on through gifts, words, touch, and even strong intent alone.
Any frithful relationship offered the opportunity for people to share in one another’s luck, as long as they maintained the relationship through right and rede-full thoughts, words and behavior. “With the flourishing of frith go luck and well-being” (Gronbech p. 149). What is perhaps different about their thinking compared to ours, though, is that frith and other fortunate states of being were more often considered the result of luck, rather than luck being the result of frith. In other words, if you have the right kind of luck (frith-speed, mannheill), then frithful relations come easily to you; if you have unluck in this area, then frith is difficult to maintain. Then, breaking or damage of frith adds more to the unluck you already have.
Luck or unluck, very importantly, came from one’s kindred, from the bloodline. Kin-luck depends on past deeds of the family, their honor, and the luck of each kinsman. It also depends on the hamingja stored within their family heirlooms, possessions, and land. As we know, Germanic folk laid great emphasis on the ability of the past to shape the present. For each person, the past is solidified through the family line; each person in the present inherits the influence, for good or ill, of the past through their kin. This plays less of a role, for most people, in modern life, but its influences are not absent: our genes, our attitudes, our culture, are inherited from our kin nowadays just as they were in the past. It’s worthwhile, even for modern people, to examine our inheritance of rede / luck / unluck, see how to make the most of rede and luck, and limit the unluck, that we each inherit from our kin.
Kings and chieftains sent their hamingja / luck into their land through their rule and their connection with their folk. Ordinary farmers and land-holders would bring their own land under their luck by working and using it rede-fully, using tools full of hamingja as a way of inserting their luck into the land. Land-holders were themselves under the rule of chieftains, who would hold the larger regions under their luck.
“The luck of the local chieftain was absolute, but could only answer to the soul of the valley, the district, and the people…it might extend to the fishing grounds…or seafaring expeditions undertaken by the villagers; but in order to cover other lands and other communities it had first to undergo a transformation by drawing up the alien power (the unique luck of that area of land) into itself and assimilating it. …To defend or conquer Norway called for the luck of a Harald.” (Gronbech p.168.)
Fertility, good seasons, and frith were the outcome of the luck of landholders, great and small, and in turn the luck of the land supported those who used and lived on it.
As far as I understand, luck does not get used up or wear out. As I’ve described above, though, it can be outclassed and overcome by someone with greater luck, or lost by being associated with a deed of great unluck. If one’s luck is attached to, or comes through, a spirit being, it can be withheld or leave, temporarily or permanently.
Givers and Mediators of Luck
All of the sources of luck I described above were important, but, especially for an ordinary individual, the most important source of luck was the presence, nature, and actions of various spirit beings. These beings are familiar to modern Heathens: the Norns, greater and lesser; the fylgja (an accompanying spirit in animal or human form) and kinfylgja (the Fylgja who follows the kin-line), the hamingja-spirit, disir and alfar (powerful ancestral spirits), landwights, tomte, heinzelmann, kabauter, and many other spirits of home and farmland, and of course the Gods and Goddesses, some more associated with luck than others.
Other nature spirits, such as water-wights, wood-elves and so forth, might play a role if one encountered them personally – often a negative role if a wild wight was angered by trespass, for instance, and cursed the trespasser. True disaster could come upon a farmer, his land, crops, cattle and kin, if he angered a powerful wight. On the other hand, centuries of folk practice tell us that the elves and other wights can be benevolent as well, when given offerings and treated well. All of the gifts and curses of these beings consist of luck in various forms, for example gaining or losing fertility of farm and family, word-luck in the form of good rede or the gift of poetry gained from a mound-wight, or hunting luck.
The involvement of these various spirit beings in our life and luck begins even before conception, as our kin-luck shapes the space we will be born into. Conception, gestation and ensouling are ruled over by powerful beings shaping the implantation of various forms of luck within us, including greater and lesser Norns, kinfylgja, disir and alfar, hamingja, and fylgja. The caul and the placenta (afterbirth) are themselves power-filled physical vehicles for luck-bearing spirits, the hamingja and personal fylgja, and if one bears an animal hama / spirit-shape this may gestate along with the fetus as well. Indeed, it is my thought that without the actions of these luck-bearing beings, conception and gestation could not take place at all. I would say that in ancient Heathen thought and traditional folklore alike, luck, for good or ill, is the etheric medium within which all of these processes take place.
As the scholar Jan DeVries describes, the hamingja is the indwelling luck, in the form of a protective spirit that accompanies a person life-long. It also takes the form of a power or energy that can radiate out of a person. The hamr, afterbirth and caul (‘Gluckshaube’ or luck-cowl) contain the soul or a soul-like being, that accompanies a person as a protective spirit. These beliefs are widespread, and certainly go back to proto-Germanic times, before the Germanic peoples split off from each other, if not even earlier times. The fylgja also follows a person and gives rede (“kunftige Ereignisse”) and luck. The House-father (Hausvater) or founding spirit of the family, the Tomte (house and farm spirit), the Cofgodas (Anglo-Saxon house-gods), Armadhr (field and harvest spirit), and others I’ve listed above, all have in their gift the blessings of luck, and failing to honor them or insulting them will lead to ill luck. (deVries pp. 222ff.)
(Digression: There is a great deal of confusion of terms about accompanying spirits in all the lore, folklore, and scholarly references, that I am not going to sort out here in any detail! There are a few ways to simplify or at least de-confuse this. A useful one is to take the approach that deVries and Grimm do: they suggest that ‘Fylgja’ meaning ‘follower’ is really an umbrella term that covers any kind of accompanying spirit: luck-spirits, ancestral spirits, animal-form spirits, spirits attached to land or home, etc. (See DeVries p. 224ff and Grimm p. 874ff.) This is something like what we do when using the generic term ‘landwights’ to refer to Nature spirit-beings who come in many different forms and ‘species’.
Many modern Heathens translate Fylgja as the ‘Fetch’, a phenomenon told of in lore of Celtic lands and peoples, where Fetch is understood to be a personal soul who can sometimes externalize itself from a person’s body, especially just before and after death (this is oversimplified). In my understanding of Germanic soul lore, the role described by the idea of the Fetch is actually a function of our Hugr soul: see my articles about the Hugr on this website.
If you are even more confused about all these terms than before, you’re in good company! But let me propose this simplification, which I use when discussing soul lore:
‘Fylgja’ (‘follower’) can be used as a generic term that covers all types of spirits who accompany humans and are not part of our own personal, inborn, human ‘soular system.’
‘Souls’ are entities who are members of our own personal ‘soular system’ and together create our holistic Self. Some of these souls, in particular the Hugr and Ghost, can exit our body and act independently, both while we are living and after we are dead. Hugr can also take alternate shapes like animals or flying witches when externalized as a ‘Hug-ham’, a Hugr with a shape. Thus they can appear as independent spirits, but they are still rooted within us while we are living, part of our ‘soular system’. Ancestral spirits, in my understanding, are the Hugr-souls of departed humans. Thus, a Hugr can be taken for a Fylgja or a Fetch, when encountered outside the body of a living person, or when it is the Hugr-spirit of a dead person. End of digression, and back to Luck…)
The connection between our deities and human luck is, I think, quite a variable and individual matter. Certainly blessings flow from them to us, which express themselves as luck, but my own feeling is that this is a somewhat different dynamic than the kinds of luck I’ve been discussing here. Sometimes, particularly with complex deities like Odin, and others too, some of their effects on our lives and on the lives of Heathens in the past can seem more like unluck when viewed and experienced in a superficial manner!
I think this is a deep matter, which is a good subject for prayer and meditation in order to understand the connection between the lucks and unlucks of your life, and the Gods and Goddesses who are closest to you personally. Often what seem like unlucky events and circumstances in our lives are blessings in disguise, as our “fulltrui (male) and fulltrua (female)” deities guide us, teach us, challenge us, and help us develop our full and deep potential as humans and as friends and companions of the Gods. (Fulltruar are the specific Deities whom we trust most fully, our closest God-friends.)
I will mention one God here, though, who is very clearly connected with good lucks in the elder lore: Frey. He is the patron of frith, of frithful rule and benevolent kingship, of Ar meaning ‘harvest’, of fruitfulness and good seasons, of fertility and plenty, of mild weather, sun and rain in their seasons, of male potency and fertility, and of good luck generally. He is also closely associated with departed ancestors, another great source of our luck (or in the case of unfortunate ancestors, unluck.) Other deities were and are prayed to for specific kinds of luck, as well: for example Ullr or Skadhi for hunting-luck, Frigg and Freya for luck in conception and childbirth, Forseti or Tyr for luck with legal issues or conflicts, Njord for safe and profitable seafaring ventures, and so forth. The whole issue of luck and unluck in our lives, the big picture, is a very worthy subject for discussion with our closest Holy Ones.
Luck and Wyrd
One of the roadblocks to a clear understanding of the ancient viewpoints about the connection between luck and wyrd is the way modern pagans, and our culture generally, have been influenced by Westernized ideas about the Eastern concept of karma. The way karma is understood in our present time and place seems like a very logical and fair way for the universe to work: good deeds are rewarded by good circumstances, most likely in future lives but perhaps in this one, while evil deeds reap ill circumstances. Our present lives and luck are the fruit of our past deeds, good and ill, and we lay the layers of karma for our next lives and luck as we live this one. This seems to fit very well with the ancient Heathen concepts of wyrd and orlay, where the layers of the past give rise to events and circumstances of the present.
The only problem is that I find only the vaguest hints, in the elder lore, that our forebears actually thought this way (see my article “Images of Orlay” for more about this). There is much more material that indicates a more fatalistic viewpoint: that the Norns hand out our luck, orlay, fate almost randomly when we are born, and that is what we are given to live out our lives. There may be a sudden change, from luck to unluck, at some point in our lives, and this turning point might be connected to an ill deed that brings ill luck. But in ancient thought, this ill deed, this apparently free will action that we think might have been avoided, would have been programmed into our lives from the beginning. Perhaps not the specifics of the deed or event, but the impulse within ourselves to commit such a deed or to become entangled in ill-luck circumstances, would have been there from the beginning, biding its time.
This is a viewpoint that was common in the ancient world of Greece and Rome, as well, and likely in other ancient cultures. It led to the powerful tragic dramas of the ancient Greek poets, where the hero could not foresee nor avoid the dread workings of fate, and his ‘heroism’ rested upon the way he responded to his unavoidable fate. The same kind of story-line shows very clearly in the tale of Sigurd / Siegfried and all the others involved in the Volsungasaga / Nibelungenlied.
Gronbech discusses “a deep-rooted peculiarity in the psychology of the ancient character. The idea that if one but earnestly wills, then the power (luck in action) will come or that the power may perhaps be there, but the will be lacking, had no validity to the Northman. All his peculiarities were due to the nature of his luck; obstinacy as well as courage, pride….violence….intractability, fearlessness. Luck is the nature of the mind, the character and will. With our ideas as to the reciprocal effects of desire and will, we must again and again in these old sagas find ourselves face to face with insoluble riddles. It often seems as if men would gladly relinquish destructive undertakings, …gladly clear away misunderstandings and enmity, but something invisible leads their endeavors to miss the mark.” (p. 158.)
The scholar Jan deVries has a similar take on this subject. The ancient Heathens would not assume that the details of their entire lives were controlled by fate set by the Gods, he writes. Rather, from the beginning to the end of life, there is an inner ‘law’ which determines its course, that lies in the inner being of the person. Here we can think of the hamingja and the fylgja, whose guidance leads to an inner consistency or logical course of life. But, outside of this realm, catastrophes and disasters can occur, breaking into this pattern of normal life, that were attributed to outside forces, to the powers of fate. In many of the tales of war and battle, it is Odin who plays this role as the dealer of fate. (DeVries p. 268)
It’s important for us to remember that there was a real difference between “wyrd” as anciently used, versus “luck”, as these concepts apply to any specific person. Wyrd as used in the ancient poetry and tales almost always referred specifically to the time and circumstances of an individual’s death. At birth, the circumstances of death were laid by the powers of fate, but the circumstances of the life lived between these two points of birth and death was the domain of luck, and generally not as heavily influenced by the great powers. Rather, it was the smaller powers, the spirit beings such as the kinfylgja, disir and alfar, hamingja, and so forth, that guided the actions of luck and unluck in their lives.
We must keep in mind, though, that some of these smaller powers of luck had a connection with the Norns and other godly powers. The personal hamingja may be “assigned” to its duty by the Norns, or come into being at the time of the Norn’s actions as they lay orlay and shape our Aldr. So, wyrd in the ancient sense of an individual’s death is assigned to us; it is 100% certain and comes upon us in the time and way established by the Norns at the beginning of our lives. (Again, see my article “Images of Orlay” for more discussion.)
Luck is different: it is complex, variable; the outcome of the luck or unluck is not 100% certain in any given circumstance. There are many influences upon each person’s luck or unluck, including the lucks of other people with whom one interacts which can have a strong impact on one’s own luck.
The meaning of wyrd that I discuss, above, refers to an individual’s wyrd. Our ancestors also recognized a greater sense of wyrd as an ongoing, ever-flowing cosmic influence, shaping time and events, governed primarily by the Norns and especially Wyrd / Urdh herself. Bauschatz defines the ancient understanding of wyrd as “the influence and control of the past over the present (p. 88)”. Yet, importantly, an ancient Heathen would not try to control the flow of wyrd on his or her own behalf; the notion of being able to do this would not come until long after Christianization. Instead, a person speaking in symbel would try to control his own path, placing himself within the existing flow of wyrd by boasts and oaths and the deeds connected to them. (Bauschatz p. 83.) This is an important distinction: a Heathen does not attempt to control the flow of wyrd, but rather to control his or her own deeds and behavior in order to work with, rather than against, the cosmic flow of wyrd.
This is a very significant point in understanding the difference between wyrd and luck. An ancient Heathen would definitely strive to gather all the luck that he or she could: by associating with those who have greater luck; by obtaining lucky objects, land, etc.; by participating in fortunate enterprises; by listening to the rede of humans or spirits to guide them into the path of luck; by cultivating and propitiating spirit beings who could give luck or unluck. Though it was recognized that luck was given to each person — greater or lesser degrees and types of luck – yet there was always the effort to increase luck and avoid unluck.
There was, however, no thought of being able to change one’s wyrd; only, as Bauschatz discusses throughout his book, the effort to place one’s deeds within the flow of wyrd and thus give one’s deeds and one’s name a place in history and in the woven fabric of space-time itself in the form of the Well and the Tree.
Wyrd, Luck and “Karma”
In ancient thought, did wyrd act like karma in the sense that good deeds in one life will lead to good luck or fortunate circumstances in the next life, and evil deeds will lead to misfortune? In other words, is there an ethical connection between ‘deeds’ and ‘wyrd’ that attaches to one or more of our souls and carries over? I’ve seen very little evidence of such a thing, neither in the primary sources of poems and sagas, nor in the analysis and interpretations of modern scholars. The reason a person wanted to place his deeds into the flow of wyrd was for his fame, his name, his reputation, and the rewards that came with that during and after life, as those deeds and fame were associated with himself or herself, by name. Great deeds placed in the flow of wyrd would lead to a famous name, respect, luck, perhaps wealth and success, luck and a good name for one’s kindred line and posterity, and hopefully an afterlife in Valhalla or elsewhere that would continue this trend.
There was a belief in reincarnation, at least in certain circumstances, and there was even more evidence of a belief that it was possible to pass luck from one generation to the next. (Our Troth, 2nd edition, p. 509.) What was important to them concerning luck and the afterlife was continuing the kin-luck. In the same way that a king or chieftain could pass luck to a follower, a dying person could pass his or her luck on to a child, not yet born, within the kindred. The dying person would state that he would pass his luck on to a kin-child who would bear his name, an example of the principle that it was most effective to state in words the gift of luck given, to ensure that the transfer of luck was successful. The vehicle, the medium, for the transfer of luck was the name.
In the instances of this transfer of luck upon death that we see in the lore, there is little hint of any belief that this process is related to ethical actions during the person’s lifetime, except to the extent that they have maintained their luck well enough for it to be worth passing on. There is not a sense that this passing on of luck is automatic, as it would be with karma: a conscious effort or intention involving giving and naming needs to be made for the transfer to happen.
An interesting thing to note in this context is that even though the person is dying, he or she still has luck to pass on to the next generation. There is no sense, in general, that the person is dying because his or her luck “ran out,” though there are sometimes references to unluck happening in battle or other circumstances. The dying person has “met his/her wyrd”, “wyrd is very near,” “wyrd has come upon him /her”: these are the phrases so often used to describe death in the ancient poetry. A person may be stupendously lucky; this has no bearing on the fact that one day his or her wyrd will bring death at a time already determined.
Luck, Wyrd, and Olaf Tryggvason
It often seems that the connection between wyrd and luck in our ancestors’ thoughts becomes more baffling, the more one looks into it! I think I can reasonably say that a modern person expects there to be some connection between personal choice, ethical action (whatever that means within a given culture and time), luck, and wyrd; some sense of “karma” in action. We have seen instances, particularly from Gronbech, where ethical actions such as honor and frith interact positively with luck. But there are also many instances where luck, such as the luck of King Olaf Tryggvason who was considered mightily lucky, was used to promote violence, unrestrained conquest, cruel and forcible conversion to Christianity, scorn toward the old laws, faith, folkways. His luck was (unfortunately) not lessened in the least by being so (mis)used! (See the “History of Olaf Tryggvason” chapter in the Heimskringla.) The fact that Olaf continued lucky and successful in these efforts was a main reason why his followers assumed this was the right thing for him to do, and it supported the argument for conversion to Christianity: Christianity as enacted by Olaf brought luck with it, in their minds.
From the perspective of understanding luck and wyrd, what happened here? First Olaf wanted more power and had the luck to get it; then he embraced Christianity as a further source of power and luck; then he rampaged across Norway, brutally forcing conversion on everyone, beating down the lucks of lesser people and communities. He kept gaining luck by his successful endeavors and by putting more and more land and people “under his luck” as well as under the “luck of Christianity”. (I might point out here that though Olaf had a lot of victory-luck, he definitely lacked wife-luck, showing Gronbech’s point that luck often shows up only in limited areas of life, not overall.)
Once Olaf had stamped down Norway, many people concluded that “Obviously all this was the right thing to do, because Olaf wielded and increased his luck and success, and that is the proof of its rightness!” For them, luck “justified” Olaf’s actions; luck drove the actions while ‘ethics’ toddled along behind, only catching up at the end rather than being the initial motivation for the actions.
It’s difficult to see any ethical lessons in any modern sense in Olaf’s tale, any connection between right behavior, luck and wyrd. He worked hard and brutally to destroy Heathen custom, the old laws, practices, and troth with the Holy Ones, which Heathens vigorously objected to and were tortured and killed for their pains. Although the Christians of the time apparently approved his actions and cheered him on, this was entirely a self-interested reaction. Certainly Olaf did not follow Jesus’ actual teachings of right behavior, as outlined in the Commandments, the Beatitudes and so forth! It is very doubtful whether Olaf and his advisors knew very much at all about Christianity and Christian ethics; they just followed ‘Christianity’ as a route to power. So what I am saying is that there was no ethical framework underlying Olaf’s luck: neither Heathen nor Christian ethics were applied, except to the extent that many Heathens and newly converted Christians apparently thought that luck was its own justification.
Thus, luck was considered to play a very prominent role, even the defining role, in this and other conquests. Where is wyrd in this kind of situation? Was it wyrded for Norway to become Christian under the brutal boot of Olaf? Or were Olaf and his followers somehow “exempt” from wyrd? Were they able to “conquer” Heathen wyrd and replace it with a Christian one? I think that Christians saw the latter as being the case: Olaf’s luck (and the luck of other Christian conquerors in Heathen and Pagan lands) was so powerful that he was able to actually shift wyrd and change it into a new path, using “Christ’s luck” to do so. This was apparently the main reason why many Heathens were willing to convert: ‘Christ’s luck’ was proven by the outcome of the conquest, while Heathen luck was overcome.
Luck and the Ordeal
These are painful and difficult questions and issues for modern Heathens, especially those of us who like to ponder abstract matters of Heathen philosophy. In situations as I’ve just described, some very profound questions about the connection between luck and wyrd leap out to grapple with the Heathen inquirer. (“Here be dragons!”)
One of the basic issues for us here is the ancient belief that luck – the outcome of an event – demonstrates wyrd. This is the basis for the concept of the Ordeal (an ordeal in the form of a contest between two or more people): whoever wins the ordeal proves that he or she is “right” in the sense of being within the flow of both luck and wyrd. The loser in the ordeal has gone against the flow of wyrd, and has no luck in the matter pertaining to the ordeal. An ordeal stands outside the realm of law and ethics; the sole determinant of luck, wyrd, and “right and wrong” in the situation is: who wins, and who loses?
If we follow the philosophical principle of the ordeal to its logical end, then we have the social situation that pertained in Heathen lands before, during, and after the forcible conversion to Christianity. There were many factors leading to the frequent conflicts, both greater and lesser, that occurred then, including environmental pressures, overpopulation (population greater than the land’s carrying capacity), migrations and cultural clashes.
But a major motivation for people was testing and trying their luck, especially important in situations of uncertainty. “Can our army or warband beat theirs? Can I prevail over my neighbor? Can I survive this Viking expedition and make myself rich? Can I win this game of chance, or will I lose everything? Whose luck is stronger, mine or his?” And so on. Life and its activities were seen as ordeals, and the reward, the “win”, was to prove to yourself and to others that both luck and wyrd are on your side.
Belief in Luck Led to Forcible Conversion
Keeping these points in mind, let’s return to the profound question of the meaning of Tryggvason’s forcible conversion of Norway to Christianity, and other similar events such as Charlemagne and his Frankish Christians conquering the Heathen Saxons. Was this wyrded? This would be a bitter conclusion for modern Heathens to draw. Was it not-wyrded, meaning that something stronger than wyrd was at play here? This is also a bitter conclusion for us: ancient Heathen thought was that there is nothing, not even our Gods, that is stronger than Wyrd. Or thirdly, did Olaf (or the powers of luck behind him) manage to achieve an unprecedented shift from one whole path of wyrd (Heathen) into another one (Christian), the kind of jump or tipping point we see in graphs of modern chaos theory? Bitter, again!
Where does this leave us, if we want to keep troth with Heathen ways and beliefs, but not do so with blind faith alone? The dilemma these questions leave us in looks a lot like an ordeal itself, a challenging test set for us by a dark and challenging deity like Odin or the Norns themselves!
One response to these questions that some modern Heathens believe is that the conversion era corresponded to the death of Baldur and the coming of Ragnarok, and that the modern resurgence of Heathenism shows the beginning of a new cycle of wyrd. This seems to me both a logical and a very meaningful conclusion to draw. In the course of writing this article, though, and struggling with the question of how luck and wyrd relate to one another, I have some further thoughts along these lines.
The way our ancestors believed in and trusted in luck was at root the cause of their conversion to Christianity. Christianity was proven, in their minds, to be more powerful than the traditional ways, and therefore more filled with luck. Since they wanted to put themselves in the flow of luck, it made sense for them to convert once this “luck” was proven. Once the conversion happened, was laid in the Well of Wyrd by its manifestation in history, that showed to their minds what direction the flow of wyrd was taking: this conversion was inevitable. And of course the Christian powers-that-be were glad to take advantage of this conclusion!
Luck, Ethics, and Troth with the Gods
Now, I suggest that there is another way to look at what was happening, in addition to the Ragnarok theory. I think that the belief and trust in luck had gotten out of hand in the Heathen culture of that time; that it took over all other ethical bases for belief, trust, and behavior, as the most powerful foundation for action and judgment in the world. We can understand how this happened: luck seemed to them to be a good messenger to tell them about the Gods’ will, judgment, guidance, as well as a signal indicating the flow of wyrd. These are mysterious forces; it’s difficult to figure them out, and very helpful to humans to be given clues in the form of luck and unluck.
I don’t deny the value of this, by any means, neither in the past nor in the present. The flow of luck, of hamingja, is essential to our lives and endeavors in many ways, as I discussed earlier in this article. But it seems to me that it needs to be balanced with some other very important factors as well. One of them is a code of ethics, that guides us through flows and events of luck and unluck so that we can keep our eyes on a higher, longer-term, broader view as well as the everyday ebb and flow of personal events. A code of ethics can be symbolized by the Tyr-Star, the North or Pole star, that guides us and “keeps troth well with Athelings over the mists of night,” as the Tyr rune-poem tells us.
A Heathen code of ethics (as has been much discussed!) is not an authoritative list of commandments handed down from on high. It is something that evolves among Heathens based on what works well for us all, tested by time and circumstance, and it continues to evolve as circumstances change. It is attuned to our Gods and Goddesses, our troth and frith, our customs and traditions. It helps us function well in the modern world while keeping our honor bright and our frith and troth whole and strong.
Along with ethics, our trust in luck needs to be balanced with strong, ongoing interactions with our deities and with lesser spirits as well. Sometimes apparent “unluck” is simply a challenge, a lesson, or guidance from our patron deities or guiding spirits, and this needs to be interpreted differently than simply assuming we’ve been cursed with bad luck and everyone is against us! It may be that dealing with our ‘unluck’ in a manner consistent with today’s Heathen ethics will in fact lead us onto a lucky path. In this way, unlucky circumstances in our life can be approached as an ordeal: by responding to the ordeal with honor and ethics, we may turn the unluck into luck.
Sometimes sacrifice is called for, rather than following an apparently lucky path. We may be asked to give something up in a way that looks unlucky for us, even to the extent of our safety or our life. This is how heroes are made. The unluck happening in our life may be a call from the Holy Ones that something in our life needs to be sacrificed, for their sake, our sake, the sake of others. When we encounter unluck, this is an important question we need to ask in examining the situation: are we being asked to regard this unlucky situation as a sacrifice? Spend time in prayer, meditation and divination to pursue a clear answer to this question, and to find a path for your response.
Sometimes apparent luck can lead us astray, blinding and deafening us to cues that this course can only lead us so far, that there is a time to stop or change course before the luck shifts to unluck because we’ve carried it too far. This dynamic is the basis for most of the tragic dramas and sagas across many different cultures! It’s also the reason countless people around the world and across the centuries have lost all their wealth and wellbeing, by blindly pursuing good luck past its turning-point into bad luck, and missing or deliberately ignoring all the cues that this was happening.
If ‘luck’ is the only signal, the only cue that we are attuned to as a way of directing our behavior, it can become a stumbling block in the path of honor, frith, generosity, and all the other Heathen thews or ethics. The pursuit of luck can sometimes lead us into behaving very selfishly when perhaps other values like honor, frith, and troth with the Holy Ones would counsel us quite differently.
Luck, Rede and Wisdom
Here is where we come full circle, back to the insights and counsel of a wise man, Vilhelm Gronbech. His insights on luck as rede are essential: luck flows from good counsel, and fails when rede is lacking. But how are we to judge what counsel is good? Both humans (including ourselves) and lesser spirits are capable of giving us bad counsel, as well as good. We need criteria to judge what rede is good, and how to act upon it. This is where ethics and active, experienced interactions and friendship with our Holy Ones comes in, along with other important insights into history, human behavior, and Heathen philosophy and metaphysics. We do this by learning widely, by developing wisdom, by growing in Heathen ethics, troth and frith, by learning from the consequences of our own and others’ experiences. Let us as wise and honorable Heathens pursue and focus on understanding “luck as wise rede”, rather than on “luck gives me everything I want, and if I’m unlucky that means the universe hates me!”
My take on the question of whether the forcible conversion of Heathens was wyrded or not? I think it was wyrded, but not for the reason that Christians would like to claim. Wyrd is the action of the past upon the present, and is influenced by Skuld or scyld, by the debts incurred during those past actions. The past reliance of Heathens on luck being its own justification, on “might makes right” meant that all of the underhanded, brutal power and might that ‘conqueror’ Christians brought to bear on them were “proven to be right, wyrded to happen.” Their over-reliance on luck and power, and under-reliance on Heathen thew, ethics, troth and wisdom led through the paths of wyrd to the outcome of conversion. (Please note that I am greatly oversimplifying the whole situation on both sides, Heathen and Christian! I am trying to draw out and simplify some philosophical principles, rather than provide a detailed history.)
The forcible conversion was an ordeal, guided by the inexorable hands of the Norns. It was the contest type of ordeal, with winners and losers, and the outcome was indeed shaped by wyrd, by past events. I would call this the action of impersonal wyrd, the flow of events causing other events.
But this was also a deliberate challenge type of ordeal, such as the one Odin put himself through on the Tree. This was and is the challenge given by the Norns, Odin, Tyr, and our other deities to their followers. The challenge is to learn wisdom: not just by suffering through and reacting to events, but by learning from them and shaping what-is-to-come accordingly. That is our task today, as modern Heathens re-establishing the ancient troth.
Wisdom is shaped into rede,
Rede is shaped into luck and deeds,
Luck and deeds flow into wyrd,
Wyrd flows back into the world to shape events…
…which we come to understand through Wisdom, completing the cycle.
Thus it is: then, now, and always.
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Note: This article is included in my book Oaths, Shild, Frith, Luck & Wyrd: Five Essays Exploring Heathen Ethical Concepts and their Use Today. https://heathensoullore.net/oaths-shild-frith-luck-wyrd/
Bookhoard and Further Reading
Bauschatz, Paul. The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture. The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1982.
DeVries, Jan. Altgermansche Religionsgeschichte vol. I. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, 1956.
Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology. J.S. Stalleybrass edition. George Bell & Sons, London, 1883.
Gronbech, Vilhelm. The Culture of the Teutons , vol. II. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London, 1931. Chapters on “Luck” and “Luck as the Life of the Clan”.
Our Troth, 2nd Edition, Vol. 1: History and Lore.
Sturlason, Snorri. “History of Olaf Tryggvason” in Heimskringla or the Lives of the Norse Kings , edited with notes by Erling Monsen and translated with the assistance of A.H. Smith, Dover Publications, Inc, New York, 1990.
This article was first published in Idunna: A Journal of Northern Tradition, #115, Spring 2018. Revised June 2020.