Leaving classical lands and times, we find in the tenth century, amongst
the Eddic Lays of northern Europe, the following passage:--
"It was in the olden days ... when Helgi the stout of heart was born of
Borghild, in Braeholt. Night lay over the house when the Fates came to
forecast the hero's life. They said that he should be called the most
famous of kings and the best among princes. With power they twisted the
strands of fate for Borghild's son in Braeholt...."[50]
Here the "Fates" are the "Norns" of the northern mythology. We find them
practising the same functions again in twelfth century Saxo
Grammaticus,[51] who calls them "three maidens"; their caprices are shown
when two of them bestow good temper and beauty on Fridleif's son Olaf, and
the third mars their gifts by endowing the boy with niggardliness.
In commenting upon both the Eddic Lay and the Danish Historian, the editors
remark that this point of the story--the bestowal of gifts at
birth--survives in the _chanson de geste_ of Ogier the Dane,[52] whose
relations with the fairy-world may be narrated shortly as follows.[53]
At the birth of Ogier the Dane, five fairies promised him strength,
bravery, success, beauty, and love; after them came Morgan le Fay, whose
gift was that, after a glorious career, Ogier should come to live with her
at her castle of Avalon.
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