Wyrd

Nothing may happen without wyrd, for it is present in everything, but wyrd does not make things happen. Wyrd is created at every instant, and so wyrd is the happening.

— Wyrd

Wyrd is too vast and too complex, for us to comprehend, for we are ourselves, part of wyrd and cannot stand back to observe it as if it were a separate force. Just as fisherman cannot see the full extent of the seas, so even a sorcerer cannot view the totality of wyrd.

— Wyrd

Balder holds up a completely blank rune. Wyrd. The beginning and the end. Fate. I don't know what that means, but it's not doing anything to uncreep me.

— Wyrd

In Anglo-Saxon literature, which Tolkien knew, the place of fate (wyrd) is central. Only occasionally is it suggested that efforts of the hero are determinative. Beowulf, most famously, gives himself up to the powers of wyrd before each battle, accepting as fact that the outcome has already been determined. The task of the hero, therefore, was to fight well, to earn a reputation as a great warrior.

— Wyrd