The Norns worked their power in the shadows, invisible, although sometimes appearing in dreams. Their fingernails each bore a rune, the symbols of secrets. The Norns often are depicted weaving fate on a loom, another motif common to several mythological traditions. On an upright loom, the warp of a textile always has a pattern, inherent from the beginning and determined by the threading of the heddles. It is made by the decisions of the weaver, but cannot be fully perceived until the cloth nears its finished state. It is an elegant metaphor for the essential outline of a life, revealed through
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