Skuld

Old Norse: Skuld
Meaning: "the coming" or "that which has to be", often translated as "future". But it also means "duty", "obligation" and "necessity".

1. a Norn and Valkyrie
2. a Queen

Skuld was the youngest of the three Norns. She was the Norn of the future.

She was very vivacious, unpredictable and merciless. She didn't love neither gods nor men.

Skuld was often discribed in having a veil and a closed book (or rather a scroll) in each hand.

She's always looking into the opposite direction of Urd, seeing the things that have to come.

Skuld was not only a Norn, she was also one of the Valkyrie. This fact declears her as warrioress.

Skuld is one of the most interesting norse goddesses, she seemed to be a gooddess of birth (Norns were often called goddesses of birth). But she was also a goddess of death (in her funktions as a Valkyrie).

Some scholars assume a connection between Skuld and the goddess Hel.

Appearance:

Queen Skuld was the wife of Hjorward and daughter of Adils and an elf and sister of Hrolf Kraki. She was a powerfull sorceress.
According to the Hrolf Kraki saga she encouraged her husband to kill Hrolf Kraki. Other sources say that she was the daughter of Helgi.

After the battle where the troops of Skuld and Hjordis killed Hrolf Kraki and his champions, Queen Yrsa send her troops to torture and kill Skuld. After Skuld's death the land was ruled by King Hrolf's daughters.

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