WYRDRealities Network
WYRDRealities brings together those curious and insatiable people with a thirst for history, science, folklore, esoteric ideals, & the unknown. Through hours of research, debate, and discussion, we explore our findings and challenge our listeners to think outside of the box and trust their intuition. After all, what is true for one person, might not be for the next.
We are the writers, the world builders, the artists, the creators, the healers, and the mystics.
Welcome to our WYRDRealities….
What is WYRD?
The concept of wyrd is critical in literary works like Beowulf and in ancient Anglo-Saxon culture, but it is not one that most people are familiar with today. The most common wyrd definitions translate the word as ''doom,'' ''fate,'' or ''destiny.''
The word wyrd connects to the contemporary English word ''weird.'' However, wyrd has a specific meaning that comes from its history and has little to do with the connotations of strangeness that are associated with ''weird.'' Wyrd comes from the Proto-Germanic *wurthiz, which also translates to ''fate.''
Wyrd shares the same roots as the Old English verb weorðan, meaning ''to become.'' The Old Norse word urðr has the same root and refers to both the concept of fate and a figure from Norse mythology, one of the three Norns. For the Norse and other Germanic peoples, fate (Old Norse Urðr or Örlög, Old English Wyrd, Old Saxon Wurd, Old High German Wurt, Proto-Germanic *Wurðiz) was the main force that determined the course of events in the universe. Much of what happened – from the overarching trajectory of time down to many particular occurrences in the lives of particular people – didn’t happen because of random chance or the consciously chosen intentions of the person who performed a causal action, but instead because it was fated to happen. Almost all beings were subject to fate – even the gods themselves.