This week to honor Tyr I will be using this spot to share some wisdom – hopefully – and to elicit some conversation.
The ancestors had a word for those you were honorable, brave, and acted with integrity in the face of death and danger – drengr.
Most of us are familiar with the concept of the Nornir. The three are entities often displayed as wise women (some may even suggest witchy). Urðr (that which has become – past), Verðandi (that which is becoming – present), and Skald (that which shall become – future) are the most common names associated to the Nornir in our mythology.
One of the functions that the Nornir serve is to determine how long a person will be allowed to live. There is, as the sagas tell us, a specific unavoidable day of our death. No one can escape that fate. We will die on the day that was designated for us to die. This concept created an almost reckless bravado in the ancestors. If the day we are to die is predetermined, then there is no reason to fear that result – it will happen without our input and is beyond our control. Therefore, we should not cower when a fight is happening. There would be no reason to avoid a fight – after all isn’t it better to die fighting with honor than to die from something like a spider bite you might get while staying in the house? If that is the day you are to die you will die (kind of reminds me of that one movie from the 90s) but, maybe, you can have some level of choice in how you die.
How can that carry over into our modern lives? We should not go about our daily lives always fighting anyone who insults us or says mean things right? Maybe a way we can translate that to modern times would be in not being afraid to get outside of your comfort zone. Failure may mean death – but if that is true then it was your day to die and it wouldn’t have matter if you tried that new thing or stayed in the safety of your comfort zone.
We need more drengr in our modern times.
Hail Tyr
Hail the ancestors
Hail Awaken the North
#Tyr #HD #greatergood #wisdom #drengr
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