110 urd
Royal burial mounds in Old Uppsala, Sweden (Photo by C. J./Used under a Creative Commons license)
statues of Odin and Frey. A golden chain girded the
temple, and every nine years the people of Uppland,
the region that included Uppsala, gathered at the
temple for a festival that included human and animal
sacrifices. Adam of Bremen explained that this temple,
was built next to and on top of the sacred grove.
U rd (W yrd ; Past)
the three great roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree.
The well was named after Urd, one of the Norns,
or Fates, who determined the directions of people’s
lives. Based on the well’s name, scholars argue that
the Norse people believed the waters of this well
contained great powers.
The gods rode their horses to this well each day
and sat there in judgment over the world.
One of the three Norns, or
Fates, who spun on their web the destiny of all living
beings. Urd was the most powerful of the three. The
sacred Well of Urd (Urdarbrunn) was named after
her. She is the oldest of the three sisters and is usually
pictured as looking backward. Her sisters are Skuld
and Verdandi. Place) A castle in the land of
the giants, according to Snorri Sturluson. The
stronghold was ruled by the giant king Utgard-Loki.
The god Thor was humiliated and defeated in Utgard
by the magic of the giant king.
U rdarbrunn (Well of Urd, Well of Fate) The
well or spring at the center of Asgard, which was the
home of the Aesir gods.
Urdarbrunn was a powerful symbol in Norse
mythology. Its waters flowed out at the base of one of U tgard -L oki (Loki of the Outer World) The
strongest and most cunning of the giants. Also
known as Skrymir, he humiliated and outwitted the
gods Thor and Loki and their servant Thjalfi in the
story “Thor’s Journey to Utgard.”
U tgard (Outer