Valkyrie

[6] The name Randalín, which Aslaug is called in Ragnars saga loðbrókar, when she joins her sons to avenge their brothers Agnarr and Eric in Sweden, is probably from Randa-Hlín, which means "shield-goddess", i.e. a kenning for "Valkyrie".

In stanza 30 of the poem Völuspá, a völva (a travelling seeress in Norse society) tells Odin that "she saw" valkyries coming from far away who are ready to ride to "the realm of the gods".

The völva follows this with a list of six valkyries: Skuld (Old Norse, possibly "debt" or "future") who "bore a shield", Skögul ("shaker"), Gunnr ("war"), Hildr ("battle"), Göndul ("wand-wielder") and Geirskögul ("Spear-Skögul").

[8] In the poem Grímnismál, Odin (disguised as Grímnir), tortured, starved and thirsty, tells the young Agnar that he wishes that the valkyries Hrist ("shaker") and Mist ("cloud") would "bear him a [drinking] horn", then provides a list of 11 more valkyries who he says "bear ale to the einherjar"; Skeggjöld ("axe-age"), Skögul, Hildr, Þrúðr ("power"), Hlökk ("noise", or "battle"), Herfjötur ("host-fetter"), Göll ("tumult"), Geirahöð ("spear-fight"), Randgríð ("shield-truce"), Ráðgríð ("council-truce") and Reginleif ("power-truce").

[9] A prose introduction in the poem Völundarkviða relates that the brothers Slagfiðr, Egil and Völund dwelt in a house sited in a location called Úlfdalir ("wolf dales").

[12] In the poem Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, a prose narrative says that an unnamed and silent young man, the son of the Norwegian King Hjörvarðr and Sigrlinn of Sváfaland, witnesses nine valkyries riding by while sitting atop a burial mound.

Their waist-length mail armour is drenched in blood; their spears shine brightly: Then light shone from Logafell, and from that radiance there came bolts of lightning; wearing helmets at Himingvani [came the valkyries].

Helgi assembles an immense host to ride to wage battle at Frekastein against the Hniflung clan to assist Sigrún in her plight to avoid her betrothment.

In the poem, Úlfr describes mythological scenes depicted in a newly built hall, including valkyries and ravens accompanying Odin at Baldr's funeral feast: There I perceive valkyries and ravens, accompanying the wise victory-tree [Odin] to the drink of the holy offering [Baldr's funeral feast] Within have appeared these motifs.

The first stanza lists: Hrist, Mist, Herja, Hlökk, Geiravör, Göll, Hjörþrimul, Guðr, Herfjötra, Skuld, Geirönul, Skögul and Randgníð.

The second stanza lists: Ráðgríðr, Göndul, Svipul, Geirskögul, Hildr, Skeggöld, Hrund, Geirdriful, Randgríðr, Þrúðr, Reginleif, Sveið, Þögn, Hjalmþrimul, Þrima and Skalmöld.

[41] The fragmentary skaldic poem Hrafnsmál (generally accepted as authored by 9th century Norwegian skald Þorbjörn Hornklofi) features a conversation between a valkyrie and a raven, largely consisting of the life and deeds of Harald I of Norway.

Stanza 9 of the song reads: Now awful it is to be without, as blood-red rack races overhead; is the welkin gory with warriors' blood as we valkyries war-songs chanted.

[51] A witchcraft trial held in 1324 in Bergen, Norway, records a spell used by the accused Ragnhild Tregagás to end the marriage of her former lover, a man named Bárd.

[53] An early 11th-century manuscript of Aldhelm's De laudis virginitatis (Oxford, Bodleian library, Digby 146) glosses ueneris with wælcyrge (with gydene meaning "goddess").

[53] Viking Age stylized silver amulets depicting women wearing long gowns, their hair pulled back and knotted into a ponytail, sometimes bearing drinking horns, have been discovered throughout Scandinavia.

The inscription says that "I cut cure-runes", and also "help-runes", once against elves, twice against trolls, thrice against thurs and then a mention of a valkyrie occurs: Against the harmful skag-valkyrie, so that she never shall, though she never would – evil woman!

[60] MacLeod and Mees state that the opening lines of the charm correspond to the Poetic Edda poem Sigrdrífumál, where the valkyrie Sigrdrífa provides runic advice, and that the meaning of the term skag is unclear, but a cognate exists in Helgakviða Hundingsbana I where Sinfjötli accuses Guðmundr of having once been a "skass-valkyrie".

[60] The Old Norse poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Darraðarljóð and the Nafnaþulur section of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, provide lists of valkyrie names.

[65] Richard North says that the description of a raven flying over the Egyptian army (glossed as wonn wælceaseg) may have been directly influenced by the Old Norse concept of Valhalla, the usage of wælcyrge in De laudibus virginitatis may represent a loan or loan-translation of Old Norse valkyrja, but the Cotton Cleopatra A. iii and the Corpus Glossary instances "appear to show an Anglo-Saxon conception of wælcyrge that was independent of contemporary Scandinavian influence".

"[68] Hilda Ellis Davidson theorizes that Wið færstice was originally a battle spell that had, over time, been reduced to evoke "a prosaic stitch in the side".

[71] Regarding the dísir, Simek states that Old Norse dís appears commonly as simply a term for "woman", just as Old High German itis, Old Saxon idis and Old English ides, and may have also been used to denote a type of goddess.

Simek states that due to the shift of concept, the valkyries became popular figures in heroic poetry, and during this transition were stripped of their "demonic characteristics and became more human, and therefore become capable of falling in love with mortals [...]."

"[74] MacLeod and Mees theorise that "the role of the corpse-choosing valkyries became increasingly confused in later Norse mythology with that of the Norns, the supernatural females responsible for determining human destiny [...].

"[75] Hilda Ellis Davidson says that, regarding valkyries, "evidently an elaborate literary picture has been built up by generations of poets and storytellers, in which several conceptions can be discerned.

She adds that there may also be a memory in this of a "priestess of the god of war, women who officiated at the sacrificial rites when captives were put to death after battle.

Since it was often decided by lot which prisoners should be killed, the idea that the god "chose" his victims, through the instrument of the priestesses, must have been a familiar one, apart from the obvious assumption that some were chosen to fall in war."

Davidson says that it appears that from "early times" the Germanic peoples "believed in fierce female spirits doing the command of the war god, stirring up disorder, taking part in battle, seizing and perhaps devouring the slain.

Britt-Mari Näsström points out the description in Gylfaginning where it is said of Freyja "whenever she rides into battle she takes half of the slain", and interprets Fólkvangr as "the field of the Warriors".

In TV, valkyries are featured in the Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd version of Der Ring des Nibelungen in the Merrie Melodies cartoon What's Opera, Doc?