Urðarbrunnr

"Urðr's well", "Fate's well." A well which lies beneath the giant ash Yggdrasil, according to Völuspá:

I know an ash standing

Yggdrasil hight,

a lofty tree,

laved with limpid water:

thence come the dews

into the dales that fall

ever stands it green

over Urd's fountain.

In Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson provides more details. He says that the Urðarbrunnr lies under the third root of Yggdrasil, the one that stands in heaven. It is where the Æsir hold their tribunal. Each day, the gods ride there over Bifröst on their horses, except for Thor, who walks to the judgment.

Snorri further says that the Norns who dwell by the Well of Urðr take water of the well every day, as well as that clay which lies about the well, and sprinkle it over the Ash so that its limbs shall not wither and rot. Its water is so holy that all things which come there into become as white as the albumen of an egg. The dew that falls from the well onto the earth is called honey-dew, on which bees are nourished. Two birds inhabit the well, and from these has come the race of swans.

The well is one of three, the other two being Hvergelmir and Mímisbrunnr.

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