THEOLOGY RELATED TO AH! MEGAMISAMA


FATES 

  According to the mythology of many ancient peoples, the gods spun 
the web of human destiny, or fate.

  In Greek mythology there were three 
goddesses called the Moirai. The Greek poet Hesiod, in his 'Theogony',
wrote that they were the daughters of Zeus and Themis. 

  In another passage he called them the daughters of Night.
Their names were Clotho (Spinner), who spun the thread of life;
Lachesis (Disposer of Lots), who determined its length; 
and Atropos (Inflexible), who cut the thread.
 
  They had no will of their own but did what Zeus told them to do;
hence the word fate, from the Latin fatum, "that which is spoken."
   
  In modern Greek folklore the Moirai appear on the third night after a 
child's birth and direct the course of its life. 

  The Roman Fates, who corresponded to the Greek Moirai, were the 
Parcae (plural of Parca, the goddess of childbirth), or birth spirits.
Their names were Nona, Decuma, and Morta. The French Fates were called 
Parques, after the Latin.
   
  In German and Norse mythology the three Norns wove and spun the web of life.
They were Urth, or Urd (the past); Verthandi, or Verdandi (the present);
and Skuld (the Future). 

  The Egyptians personified fate in the god Shai. 
The name was derived from the verb meaning to decide. 

  The Chinese word for fate is ming, which means something spoken or decreed.
In the West the concept of fate has been displaced for many by the notion of
God as determiner of events.
 

Megami ML Discussion:

  Urd is the eldest sister, pictured with white hair. She looks after the
roots of the tree of Yggdrasil, and keeps it from decay using water taken
from the well of life. Popular lore also states that she spins the thread
of life for each person.

  Verthandi is the 2nd eldest sister, popular lore also states that she
measures the length of each person's thread of life.

  Skuld is the youngest sister, having a fiery temper and little patience
with the affairs of mortals. She is known to have travelled to Midgard
under the guise of a mortal. Popular lore states that she cuts the thread
of life, ending a person's life.

  All three Norns use the tree of life as a scrying bowl.


AMG in comparison with Norse mythology:

  Yggdrasil is actually the tree of existence linking all 7 worlds together.
It is constantly under the attack of bugs, which feed on it's body.

  Thus in AMG, there exists other worlds other than Midgard (Human) and
Asgard (land of Thor and Loki). Yggdrasil is presented as a computer system,
with bugs constantly causing trouble. Skuld is the system debugger, and uses
her hammer to clean out bugs.

  Sleipnir goes by the same name in AMG. A legendary steed with many legs.

  Fenrir goes by the same name in AMG. The beast which bit off the hand of
the god of justice, and is the son of Loki.

  Peorth is named after the symbol which appears on her forehead, a roman
character.

  In Japanese mythology, there are Gods (Kami) and Spirits (Sen). Gods are
essentialy higher beings given specific titles or lands to control. Spirits
are also higher beings, but were not given specific titles nor lands to
defend, though they some may be more powerful than gods. The same goes with
Chinese mythology.

  In Japanese, Chinese and Norse mythology, Gods are not immortal. The Norse
gods are very much aware of their impending doom, the day of judgement when
they will all be slain in battle with the frost giants. Balder is also dead
before his time. The souls of brave warriors are taken to Valhalla to train
for this final battle. It is known as Ragnarok: dusk of the gods.

Compiled by Leonard Tai. Section on fates excerpted from CIE 95.

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Skuld ML Input:

Well, the heavenly trio represents the Goddesses of Fate, also known 
around the world in different forms as the Triple Goddess. In Norse 
mythology compared to that of the Greeks, the Goddesses are reversed. 
To the Greeks, the fates were Clotho,Lachesis, and Atropos...maiden, 
mother, crone. To the Norse however it was reversed...Urd being 
the past, is the oldest, the old crone, spinner of the thread of fate. 
Belldandy ( Verdandi ) is the present, the motherly middle sister, who 
measures it. And Skuld, representing the future, is the maiden, the 
one who cuts it in the end -- death. Possibly Kosuke's vision of the 
goddesses is a bit reversed, but I personally have no problem with it :)

--Richard Paul Gregorio [aka Skuld^ on IRC Dalnet #Nabiki^sRPG -- visit us 
sometime! :)]

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The World-Ash And The Norns

Our ancestors thought of the world as a giant tree, the world-ash
Yggdrasil. Yggr is another name of Wotan, "drasil" means bearerm so
Yggdrasil means "tree of Wotan".
  The ash embraces the whole world. Its roots ascend from the cold
Nifelheim, the home of the giants, the Land of Rimthursen and Midgard,
where mankind lives. The trunk accends towards heaven and its wide top
covers Asgard, home of the Asen.
  [... some stories about the animals within the tree deleted ...]
  Below the root at Nifelheim there is the Land of Hel, the abandoned world
of death, where the souls of the dead travel.
  The second root is at Riesenheim. There lies Mirmir's Well.
  The third root accends from Midgard. There is a well, too: the Well of
Norns or Well of Urd. At this well there is a high hall embraced by the
waters: the home of the norns, sisters of fate. They are three giant maiden
and are called Urd, Werdandi and Skuld. Their hands were given a horrible
might: they have to decide about the fate of the gods and mankind, and even
the whole world.
  There was a time when gods of Asgard were the mights of fate. They played
with dice of gold covered by the holy runes of Allvater. At these times no
one knew sorrow or pain; only clear and pure happiness at Asgard and
Midgard. That was the Golden Age, the time of the purity of children and
happiness. It was ended by the time the gods of Asgard got guilty. Guilty
of murder, betrayal and so they lost their holiness.
  Then the three norns came, three sisters descended from the giants. They
sat at the well within the high hall, wrote runes and decided the fate of
gods and men. The mightiest of them is Urd or "Wurt", the norn of the past,
therefore the well is called by her name. Her name means "the word".
  The name of her sister Werdandi means "the coming"; she realizes the
words of Urd, lets the things grow and develop. She covers them, has
pity on the weak, doesn't like the proud and smiles at the play of the
young ones. She knows the future of the from betrayal and disappointment-
cursed mankind, she sees the end - and is only able to smile about the
unwillingness of mankind to come to terms with it.
  The third sister of fate is called Skuld. She bears the decisions; she is
hard. With a hard pencil she writes the rune of death and talks with a
deadly voice: "it has to be!" Skuld, the norn of the future, knows no mercy
unlike her sister Werdandi, nor the warm enthusiasm of Urd; like the giants
she carries a heart of stone within her breast and her face is pale and cold
like the face of death.
- - - - - -
("G=F6tter- und Heldensagen", Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach, ISBN
3-8112-1411-X, translated by Roland Lichti from German)
(Edited by Leonard Tai)