The battlefield falls silent. Somewhere above the clash of swords and the cries of dying men, they move — armoured, purposeful, and utterly without mercy. They are the Valkyries: the Choosers of the Slain, the warrior maidens of Norse mythology who decide which warriors live, which die, and which are deemed worthy of eternity in Odin’s hall. Of all the figures in the Norse mythological world, few are as dramatic — or as persistently misunderstood — as the Valkyries.
What Does “Valkyrie” Mean?
The word Valkyrie comes from the Old Norse valkyrja, a compound of two words: valr, meaning “the slain on the battlefield,” and the verb kjósa, meaning “to choose.” Together: Chooser of the Slain. It was not a poetic title — it was a literal job description.
In Norse belief, the Valkyries were supernatural beings who served Odin, the Allfather, and performed one of the most consequential tasks in the entire cosmos: selecting which warriors would fall in battle and ensuring that the bravest of those fallen were escorted to Valhalla to prepare for Ragnarök — the prophesied end of the world.
The Role of the Valkyries in Norse Mythology
In the Norse worldview, nothing on the battlefield happened by chance. Every warrior who died did so because a Valkyrie had chosen them. This was not random selection — it was a careful, deliberate act carried out in service of Odin’s grand purpose. He was building an army.
The Einherjar — the warriors chosen by the Valkyries — were transported to Valhalla, Odin’s magnificent hall in Asgard. There, they spent their days fighting one another in great mock battles, honing their skills to perfection, then rose from the dead each evening to feast, drink mead, and celebrate. The goal was singular: to create the finest army of warriors in existence, ready to stand beside Odin when Ragnarök arrived and the forces of chaos threatened to destroy all Nine Worlds.
The Valkyries did not simply drop warriors at the gates of Valhalla and leave. They also served as hosts within the hall, bearing cups of mead to the Einherjar and honouring the fallen heroes. It was a role that combined the terrifying authority of a battlefield judge with the duty of a sacred host.
Importantly, Odin did not have sole claim to the dead. The goddess Freyja presided over a field called Fólkvangr, and according to the Prose Edda, she chose half of all warriors slain in battle for her own realm, while Odin claimed the other half. The Valkyries, in this telling, acted as agents of both divine powers — though they are most closely and consistently associated with Odin. To understand Odin’s role in Norse belief, our guide to Viking god names and their meanings provides useful context.
Who Were the Most Famous Valkyries?
Across the Norse mythological sources — primarily the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both compiled in thirteenth-century Iceland — scholars have identified as many as 39 individual Valkyrie names. Some appear only briefly; others have entire sagas built around them. Here are the most celebrated:
Brynhildr
Brynhildr (also known as Brunhild) is arguably the most famous Valkyrie in all of Norse mythology. Her name means “armour warrior,” and her story is one of the most tragic in the Eddic tradition. Once a Valkyrie who defied Odin by granting victory to the wrong king in battle, she was punished by being put to sleep behind a wall of fire — only to be awakened by the hero Sigurðr (Siegfried), who would later become the source of her heartbreak. Her story forms the centrepiece of the Völsunga saga and later inspired Richard Wagner’s operatic masterpiece, The Ring of the Nibelung.
Sigrun
Sigrun appears in the Helgakviða Hundingsbana as a Valkyrie who chose — and ultimately fell in love with — the hero Helgi Hundingsbane. It is a rare instance in Norse literature of a Valkyrie escaping the rigid boundaries of her divine role for a mortal relationship, giving her story an unexpectedly human quality.
Hildr
Hildr, whose name simply means “battle,” appears in the Norse tale of an eternal conflict known as the Hjaðningavíg. She was said to possess the power to resurrect slain warriors each night, keeping a battle going indefinitely — an eerie reflection of the cycle of war and rebirth that characterises the Einherjar’s existence in Valhalla.
Skuld, Göndul, and Others
Other notable Valkyries include Skuld (whose name shares roots with the Old Norse concept of fate and debt), Göndul (associated with magic and shape-shifting), Hrist (“the shaker”), and Mist (“the cloud”). Many of these names are kennings — vivid descriptive compounds that paint a picture of battlefield chaos, divine power, and inevitable death. Together they read less like a list of individuals and more like a catalogue of war itself.
What Did the Valkyries Look Like?
Popular imagery — and a great deal of later art — depicts Valkyries as beautiful maidens riding winged horses through storm clouds. In reality, the oldest Norse sources paint a rather different picture.
In the earliest Eddic poems, Valkyries are depicted riding ordinary horses through the sky and across battlefields. They wear armour and carry spears, and their approach is associated not with beauty and grace but with storm, blood, and the sound of weapons. Their hair, described in several poems, is stiff with blood from the field.
The winged horse is fundamentally a Greek concept — Pegasus — and it crept into Valkyrie iconography much later through medieval and Renaissance art. By the time of Wagner’s operas and twentieth-century popular culture, the image had fully fused with the Valkyrie figure. But return to the primary Norse sources and you find something older and stranger: ravens and wolves follow in their wake, feasting on the battlefield dead that the Valkyries leave behind. It is a far grimmer picture than the operatic version — and a far more compelling one.
Valkyries and Valhalla
To fully understand the Valkyries, you need to understand Valhalla. The word comes from Old Norse Valhöll, meaning “Hall of the Slain.” It was Odin’s feasting hall in Asgard, said to have 540 doors wide enough for 800 warriors to march through side by side. The roof was made of shields; the rafters were spear shafts.
It was not a quiet paradise. Every day, the Einherjar rose, fought one another to the death in magnificent simulated battles, and then — having been revived by evening — gathered to eat roasted boar, drink mead poured by the Valkyries, and hear the sagas of great warriors past. They were, in essence, a standing army in permanent training, kept ready for the day when Odin’s long war planning would finally be tested at Ragnarök.
The Valkyries moved between these two worlds — the blood and chaos of the mortal battlefield and the eternal, ordered hall of the gods — with complete authority in both.
Valkyries in the Primary Sources
The two principal sources for Valkyrie mythology are the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. The Poetic Edda — a collection of anonymous Old Norse verse — contains the famous poem Völuspá (“The Seeress’s Prophecy”), which includes vivid descriptions of Valkyries riding across battlefields, ready to choose among the dying. The Prose Edda, written by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson around 1220 CE, provides the most systematic account of their role and lists many of their names.
Earlier still, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote in the first century CE about Germanic tribes who believed certain women could foresee the outcome of battles. Scholars debate whether these descriptions represent a proto-Valkyrie belief, but the thread between fierce battle-women and divine fate-choosers runs deep through the Germanic and Norse traditions, suggesting the concept is far older than its surviving written sources.
The Valkyries in Modern Culture
The Valkyries have never truly left the cultural imagination — and in recent years they have returned in force.
In God of War (2018) and its sequel God of War: Ragnarök, the Valkyries are among the most feared enemies in the game — trapped in a corrupted state and requiring the protagonist Kratos to free them in some of the most challenging boss battles ever designed. The portrayal draws heavily on the original mythology while adding its own dark interpretations, and it introduced an entirely new generation to the Norse mythological world.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson) appears in Thor: Ragnarok as a former Asgardian warrior who survived the destruction of her fellow Valkyries. While the film takes significant liberties with the source material, it brought the concept of the Valkyrie to a global mainstream audience.
Richard Wagner’s epic opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung — based directly on the Norse sagas — gave us the thunderous “Ride of the Valkyries,” one of the most recognisable pieces of music ever written. And the History Channel series Vikings draws on the shield-maiden tradition, a historical and mythological concept that overlaps closely with the Valkyrie figure.
For more Norse mythology brought to screen, our guide to the best Norse mythology movies is an excellent starting point. The history of Norse paganism also provides essential context for understanding how these beliefs functioned as a living religion, not merely a body of stories.
The Valkyrie as a Symbol Today
Beyond mythology and popular culture, the Valkyrie has endured as a powerful symbol. She represents the intersection of femininity and martial power — of death and honour, of fate and agency. In Scandinavia today, Valkyrie imagery appears in jewellery, tattoos, and design, frequently used as an emblem of female strength and resilience.
The Valkyrie occupies a fascinating space in the Norse supernatural world. Like the Huldufólk of Iceland — those hidden beings who exist just beyond the visible world and quietly shape the lives of mortals — Valkyries operate on a plane that humans can feel but not control. The difference is that the Huldufólk are elusive and secretive; the Valkyries are unmistakeable. They announce themselves in storm, blood, and the shriek of ravens overhead.
You can also explore the broader world of Scandinavian folklore creatures to discover the many other extraordinary beings that populated the Norse and Nordic imagination — from trolls and giants to sea serpents and forest spirits.
Conclusion
The Valkyries are among the most compelling figures in all of Norse mythology — powerful, terrifying, and strangely tender in their role as guardians of fallen warriors. They are not simply angels of death. They are the ultimate expression of a culture that saw battle not as a tragedy to be lamented, but as a stage on which the most important judgements of a life were made.
To be chosen by a Valkyrie was not simply to die — it was to be recognised. To be seen by the gods themselves. To be found worthy of the greatest hall ever built, and the greatest battle ever to come. In a world shaped by fate, the turning of the seasons, and the will of the Allfather, the Valkyries were the moment where all of those forces touched the lives of ordinary people.
They chose well. They had to.
Photo by Fernando Cortés on Pexels.
