Norns in popular culture

Depictions of Norns appear infrequently in modern popular culture, often largely unrelated to their historical inspiration.

[edit] Depictions in modern popular culture

The Japanese manga and anime series Oh My Goddess! by Kosuke Fujishima features three main characters loosely based on and named after the Norns. They are Urd, Skuld, and Belldandy (a transliteration in Japanese of Verdandi).
In Matantei Loki Ragnarok they appear as enemies of Loki.
In Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman, the three Norns figure prominently in the penultimate story arc, "The Kindly Ones," and are linked to the Eumenides, the Hecatae and the Moirae. Loki, Thor & Odin also appear in the storyline.
In the Marvel Comics universe, the Norns are featured as antagonists to the denizens of Asgard.
In Japanese manga series Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Nornir are a race of dragons that spawned the sorcerers.

Lenneth Valkyrie in Valkyrie Profile is very loosely based on the Norns as Verdandi along with Hrist (known as Ahly/Early in the Japanese version) Valkyrie (Urd) and Silmeria Valkyrie (Skuld) but not named as such.
In Warhammer 40,000, the malicious Tyranid race is ruled by beings called the Norn Queens, although there does not appear to be any direct connection.
In the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Demikids (of which one of the game systems is making a small army to fight enemies), Urd, Verdandi and Skuld exist as 3 entities who are normally NPCs. However, they are recruitable during the post-end-game scenarios, and furthermore, the three can merge into a single entity named Norn.
The Creatures series of computer games borrows several names from Norse mythology, including that of the Norns, which are the main form of artificial life that is available for the user to raise and breed.
Norns are a breed of shapeshifting giants thats available as a playable race in Guild Wars 2.

Norns make an appearance in Roger Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness. They are a race of blind blacksmiths, with bodies adapted to this trade.
In the book Sea Of Trolls, the Norns are involved in the story by meeting with the main protagonist and helping him with a quest
Also three of the main characters in Robin Jarvis's "The Wyrd Museum Trilogy" are the Norns, named Ursula Webster (Urd), Celandie Webster (Skuld) and Veronica Webster (Verdandi).
In Neil Gaiman's American Gods, the protagonist, Shadow, pays a visit to the Norns.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series he follows the tale of three witches over several books. Foremost of these is Granny Weatherwax (Urd) accompanied by Nanny Ogg (Verdandi) and Magrat Garlick (Skuld).
A race called the Norns also appears in Tad Williams's fantasy series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn; however, there is no apparent relation.
The author Gene Wolfe makes several references to the Norns in his body of work. In his science fiction tetrology, The Book of the New Sun, the planets formerly known as Earth, Venus, and Mars are respectively named Urth, Skuld, and Verthandi. In the fantasy series, The Wizard Knight, a creature named Parka shown weaving the threads of fate together on her loom.
It can be argued that in Charles Dickens` A Christmas Carol, the characters of the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and of Christmas Yet To Come are analogous to the Norns.

In the song Fate of Norns by metal band Amon Amarth, the Norns are referred to as the force that guides the destiny of life and death.

In the sci-fi series Charlie Jade, three scientists appear based on the Norns: Urding, Skuldeman, and Verdandi.
In the fantasy series Gargoyles, the Norns, called "The Weird Sisters" by the characters, appear frequently in the present as well as in flashbacks. Odin also appears in this series.
The Yugioh character Zigfried von Schroeder uses 3 Spell cards named for the Norns. Urd has the power to see the cards in a player's deck, Verdandi has the power to see a player's hand, and Skuld can see a player's face-down cards.

In William Shakespeare's "Macbeth", they were represented by the three witches.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Wyrd Sisters were Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Wyrd Sisters is also the title of the sixth book in the series.
In Gargoyles, the Weird Sisters were triplets of Oberon's Children named Phoebe, Selene, and Luna who often manipulated the fate of humanity, primarily those of Macbeth and Demona.
In the Harry Potter universe, the Weird Sisters are a popular Wizarding music group.
In The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok manga and anime series, The Weird Sisters make an appearance as themselves.
The sisters in Ah! My Goddess are named after the Weird Sisters, with the exception of Belldandy (often considered simply a mistranslation of Verdandi)
Three Weird Sisters is an American musical group from Atlanta, Georgia that plays an eclectic blend of instruments and sings with multi-part harmony, covering themes ranging from ancient myth to outer space with styles from folk and Celtic to torch songs.
The Wyrd Sisters is a Canadian folk music group.
The Weird Sisters are a form taken by The Three in Sandman and related DC Comics titles.
Weird Sisters is the name of a song by the American group Sparklehorse
The Weird Sisters is a trio of Chicago chanteuses, backed by the Strange Brothers on bass and percussion.

Fantasy novelist Katharine Kerr: in her Deverry cycle she uses the term wyrd to describe fate in the exact same way as in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse concept, even though the cycle is about a celtic people from ancient Gaul.
Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters are in reference to Shakespeare.
Irregular Webcomic! - Theme 'Death' and Theme 'Myth Busters' Strip http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1300.html
Brian Bates, The Way of Wyrd, A Book about Anglo-Saxon Nature Spirituality, first published 1983.
Swedish Heavy Metal band Web Of Wyrd is not just derivative in name but everything from lyrics to image has a strong pagan influence.
Sabbat, Dreamweaver (Noise 1989) is based on The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates.
Italian Folk/Power Metal band Elvenking's second album is called Wyrd.
Wyrd is also a folk-black metal band from Finland.
In Age of Mythology, the Well of Urd is jumped into by Arkantos, Ajax, Amanra, Chiron, and Reginlief in order to get to Niflheim to stop Gargarensis from opening the gates to Tartarus and letting Chronos out of the Underworld.
Several types of elemental wierds exist in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.