The three Nornies, Urda, Verdandi, and Skula, are celebrated in Scandinavian mythology. Of them we have before spoken, and have little to add here. Their origin was unknown. They appear to have sprung up with the great tree Yggdrasil, and to have been dependent only on the mysterious Al-fader. They were said to have more sympathy than destined beings would be expected to have, and to have wept over the fall of their favourites. Both Urda and Skula were frequently consulted by the gods, who were ignorant of their own fate.
Besides these there were inferior Nornies among the elves and the dwarfs.
Night and Day (Nott and Dagr) were also deified; so was the horse Rimfaxi (frost-mane), which carried night, and the horse Skinfaxi (bright mane), which drew the car of day. Dew is merely foam which falls from the bits of the former horse. Night was the daughter of the great Norvè; and being married to the god Delling (the dawn) the offspring was Day. There is some poetry in the following description from the poetic Edda:
Delling’s son (day) forth
Drove his horse,
Richly beset
With shining stones.
O’er Manheim (earth) gleamed
The courser’s mane,
Who drew in his car