The Valkyries – Between Battle and Hall

They are far more than the winged warrior-maidens of the opera: the valkyries decide who falls in battle – and who is taken up into Odin’s hall after death. They are messengers of death and honour guard at once, beautiful and terrible.

Valkyries (Old Norse valkyrja, „chooser of the slain") are Odin’s serving battle-maidens. They ride over the battlefields, decide the outcome of the fight and escort the bravest of the fallen to Valhalla. There they bear the drinking-horn to the einherjar.

The Choosers of the Slain

Their name says it all: they choose the dead. Whoever dies on the battlefield dies because a valkyrie has chosen him. That makes them one of the most ambivalent figures of the mythology – life-sparing for one, death-bringing for another. In Valhalla, though, they set aside the cruelty and become cup-bearers to the fallen heroes.

“Hrist and Mist / I would have bear the horn to me, / Skeggjold and Skogul; / Hild and Thrud, / Hlokk and Herfjotur, / Gol and Geironul, / Randgrid and Radgrid / and Reginleif — / these bear the einherjar ale.”— Grímnismál 36, translation after Henry Adams Bellows (public domain)

Between Battlefield and Hall

The oldest sources show the valkyries darker than Romanticism wished: in the Darraðarljóð they weave the fate of battle on a loom whose warp is entrails and whose weights are human heads. They are no gentle angels, but instruments of Odin’s relentless gathering for the last war.

Brynhild – the Human Valkyrie

The most famous valkyrie is Brynhild (Sigrdrífa): because she let the wrong king win against Odin’s will, he pricked her with the sleep-thorn and condemned her to live as a mortal woman. Her awakening and her runic wisdom for the hero Sigurd are among the loveliest scenes of the Poetic Edda.

The choosers of the fallen

The valkyries (valkyrjur, "choosers of the slain") are among the most impressive figures of Norse mythology. As Odin's servants they decide victory and death on the battlefield and lead the bravest fallen to Valhalla.

Servants of Odin

At Odin's command the valkyries ride over the battlefields and choose those who are received as Einherjar in Valhalla. There they hand the warriors mead and drink at the eternal feast – warriors and hostesses at once.

Between terror and beauty

The oldest images of the valkyries are grim: in the Darraðarljóð they weave the fate of war from the entrails and heads of the fallen. Later they became noble, shield-bearing maidens – a change from image of terror to heroic figure.

Valkyries as heroines

Some valkyries step out of their role and become tragic heroines: Brynhild and Sigrun love mortal heroes and defy the will of Odin. Thus the valkyries combine war, fate and love in a single figure.