The oldest of the Norns, Urd is half-goddess and half-demon. She is easily the most un-goddess-like of the goddesses, being impulsive, irresponsible, and very meddlesome. As the series' love goddess and potion expert, the combination can become nasty when Urd concocts one of her love pills or potions to lend a "helping" hand. In terms of power Urd is stronger than Belldandy but has less precision, thus her spells mess up sometimes. Urd does not get along well with her younger half-sister Skuld and they often quarrel frequently. Despite her demon heritage, Urd has never considered herself as anything but a goddess and takes great pride in her goddess side.

Urd is the Norn of the Past as well as the leader of the Norns. She is the oldest of the three and was portrayed as an old woman or crone looking backwards (towards the past). Like Verthandi, Urd was considered as benevolent.

"Urd" has a host of other spellings that include Urda, Urth, Urdr and Urthr. While the form Urd is the most common, the original spelling and pronunciation was "Urthr". Note that the form urdr means means "what has happened". Interestingly, the English word "weird" comes from Old Norse ur(th)-r by way of the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) wyrd, in turn derived from Old High German wurt and Old Saxon wurd.