Freakin Weird Blog

July 12, 2005
The Three Weird Sisters

In my ongoing quest to unearth some of the weirdest things on our very odd planet, it'll probably help to investigate the origin of the word "weird". Various sites offer differing definitions, but probably my favorite is from Wikipedia, which claims that "weird" derives from an ancient Anglo-Saxon and Nordic concept called "wyrd".

In short, the concept of "wyrd" relates to the idea that we’re all affected by our past actions, and these actions will perpetually affect what happens to us in the future.

Hmm, so no mention of cats dressed up as frogs then. What a shame.

But here's where things start to get interesting. If you dig a little deeper into the origin of the word "weird", you'll eventually stumble across the story of the Three Weird Sisters. The Three Weird Sisters come from Germanic mythology, and the three lovely ladies in question are Urd or Wyrd (the fate of the past), Verdandi (the fate of the present) and Skuld (the fate of the future).

The sisters also spring up in Shakespeare's Macbeth, where they were depicted as three witches.

So that got me thinking. What other weird sisters are out there? So I spent literally seconds racking my brain to come up with the following list:

1. The Scary Twins From The Shining
No, I don’t "wanna play" you ashen-faced, supernatural, blood-stained maniacs.
2. The Corrs
The Corr sisters make the list, because whenever I hear their music I suffer from this weird reaction which makes me want to boil my eardrums in a vat of sulphuric acid.
3. The Andrews Sisters
I think my buddy's father still has the hots for these 1940s warblers, which I find very unsettling.
4. The Barbie Twins
These little minxes never replied to my stream of letters offering to take them for a nice lamb lunch, followed by a romantic evening of dominoes under the stars – which I found weird.
5. Sisters Of Mercy
Ok, ok... so they’re not technically "sisters", but watch any one of their music videos and you’ll know exactly why they're on this list.
6. Ashlee and Jessica Simpson
One's in Dukes of Hazzard, the other's a musical hazard – very strange indeed.
7. The Olsen Twins
They're on the list because they're just straight out odd – and not because they're 10,000 times wealthier and better looking than me. Honest.
8. The Hilton Sisters
There's an old saying that you get out of life exactly what you put in. So isn't it weird how these two scamps have been able to buck the trend?

But enough of this random rambling, I want to hear what you think. Send me an email and include who would make your list. And why stop at sisters? After all, I don't want to prejudice any weird brothers out there. Or cousins. Or best friend's niece's room-mates. Well, maybe I should draw a line there...

Image of the Weird Sisters from www.gho-englisch.de

posted by Dr. Wei, PhD 09:03 E-MAIL THIS POST