Web of Wyrd

Size: 30,3 x 22,6 cm

Materials: Watercolour on watercolour paper

As the sixth symbol, I chose the Anglo-Saxon Web of Wyrd and put an abstraction of the Earth behind it.

The Web of Wyrd is an Anglo-Saxon symbol which symbolizes the threads of fate spun by the Norns. It can serve as a reminder that the past affects the present and the present affects the future.

It’s built from nine staves arranged in an angular grid, and it contains all of the shapes of the runes and therefore all of the past, present, and future possibilities represented by them.

The web of wyrd is a reminder that past actions affect the present and that present actions affect the future. That all timelines are interconnected. It shows the web of individual threads that binds all things together, both living and not. By some, it’s seen as a representation of the tree of life.

The word wyrd is an Old English noun from the verb weorþan, which means “to become.” It’s associated with the Old English weorþ, which means “worth” in the sense of “value” as well as “honour/esteem”. The term wyrd is a version of fate, predetermination that’s found in Germanic mythology.