valkyrja/valkyrjur (9)
valkyrja/valkyrjur (non.)
valkyrie/valkyries (en.)
valkyrie/valkyries (en.)
Supernatural female warriors who are closely associated with Óðinn
and decide the fate of warriors. They convey those who die in battle
to Valhöll to join the group known as einherjar who will fight on
the side of the Gods in the Battle of Ragnarök.
Árni Björnsson
notes in Wagner and the Volsungs: Icelandic Sources
of Der Ring des Nibelungen that
"the idea of the valkyries derives from the Eddas and other early
poetry. The German word Walküre is a nineteenth-century Germanistion
of the Icelandic valkyrja ('chooser of the slain') (155).
