Weave a war on a loom weighted with human heads before the Battle of Clontarf
The poem Darraðarljóð in Njáls saga: the warp is entrails, the shuttles swords, the battle in 1014.
Myth · Norse
Valkyrie
Norse mythology — Odin's choosers of the slain
The valkyries are Odin's female choosers of the slain: they ride over the battlefield, decide who dies, and carry the chosen to Valhalla, where they serve them ale for ever. They shade from terrifying war-spirits weaving on a loom of entrails into the armoured, lordly women of heroic legend — Brynhild above all — and from there into Wagner's opera and the most famous orchestral gallop in music.
How to spot them
- ▸Armoured women on horseback above a battlefield, bearing the chosen dead away
- ▸In the hall they carry ale and mead horns to the dead warriors
- ▸Some are swan-maidens whose feather-cloaks can be stolen by a mortal
- ▸Quiz clue: 'the name means chooser of the slain', 'Ride of the …', 'Darraðarljóð'
Stories & episodes
Named and counted serving ale in Grímnismál
Hrist, Mist, Skeggjöld, Skögul, Hildr, Þrúðr, Herfjötur, Göndul and the rest, bringing horns to the einherjar.
One of them defies Odin over who should win a battle and is pricked with a sleep-thorn
Sigrdrífa, ringed with fire on Hindarfjall until Sigurd wakes her; she is usually identified with Brynhild.
Three of them are caught by brothers who steal their swan-cloaks
The prologue to Völundarkviða, where they stay nine years and then fly away.
Wagner gives nine of them a shrieking, galloping orchestral entrance
The Ride at the start of Act III of Die Walküre, 1870, the second opera of the Ring.
Quick-fire facts
- •The Old Norse valkyrja means 'chooser of the slain', from valr (the battle-dead) and kjósa (to choose)
- •They serve in Valhalla, but Freyja chooses first and takes half of the slain to Fólkvangr
- •Grímnismál and Snorri both give lists of names — Gunnr, Róta, Skuld, Hildr, Göndul, Skögul among them
- •The Old English cognate wælcyrge appears in Anglo-Saxon glosses for Furies and witches
- •Brynhild of the Völsung cycle and Sigrún of the Helgi poems are valkyries who love mortal heroes
- •Small silver and bronze figures of women bearing horns, such as the Hårby figurine from Denmark, are usually read as valkyries
- •Wagner's Die Walküre gave them Brünnhilde and eight sisters, and the Ride was later notoriously used in Apocalypse Now
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Sacred Texts Archive — The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation) Grímnismál, Völundarkviða and Sigrdrífumál
- Snorri Sturluson — The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) Gylfaginning for their service in Valhalla
- World History Encyclopedia — Valkyrie