The Valkyries: Who They Actually Chose and Why

The Valkyries are the female battle spirits of Norse mythology who serve Odin by choosing which warriors die in battle and carrying the chosen to his hall, Valhalla. Their Old Norse name, valkyrja, means "chooser of the slain," from valr (the slain) and kjósa (to choose). In the Eddic poems they ride armed through the sky, decide who wins, and pour drink for the dead in Valhalla; in the heroic legends some of them fall in love with mortal heroes.

Valkyrie quick facts

What does a Valkyrie do?

A Valkyrie chooses who dies in battle and who wins it, then serves the chosen dead in Valhalla. Snorri's Gylfaginning says Odin sends them to every battle to allot death and govern victory, and that Gunnr, Róta and Skuld, the youngest of the Norns, always ride out to choose the slain.

The choice was not a reward for merit. In Eiríksmál, a 10th-century memorial poem for King Eiríkr Bloodaxe, Odin is asked why he took victory from so brave a king. His answer: because the grey wolf is watching the homes of the gods. Odin was recruiting for the last war.

The valkyries also serve. In Valhalla they bear ale to the einherjar, the chosen dead, who wait there for Ragnarök. Grímnismál names thirteen of them — Hrist and Mist, Skeggjöld and Skögul, Hildr and Þrúðr, Hlökk and Herfjötur, Göll and Geirölul, Randgríðr and Ráðgríðr and Reginleif — many built from battle-words: noise, spear, shield, war-fetter.

Do Valkyries take warriors to Valhalla?

Yes, but only Odin's share of the dead. In Hákonarmál, a 10th-century poem preserved in Heimskringla, Odin sends the valkyries Göndul and Skögul to choose a king to join him in Valhalla. Skögul tells King Hákon the Good that they will ride to the green homes of the gods to announce his coming.

Grímnismál also says the goddess Freyja chooses half the slain every day for her field Fólkvangr, and Odin has the other half; Snorri's Gylfaginning agrees. Whether valkyries ride for Freyja too, the sources never say.

What happens to the warriors the Valkyries choose?

They become einherjar, a name often glossed "those who fight alone." In Vafþrúðnismál they fight one another every day in Odin's yard, then sit down together reconciled. In Grímnismál the cook Andhrímnir boils the boar Sæhrímnir, which Snorri says is whole again by evening, and the goat Heiðrún on the roof fills a vat with mead.

Grímnismál gives Valhalla five hundred and forty doors, with eight hundred einherjar marching out of each one to fight the wolf — more than four hundred thousand warriors. Yet in Völuspá and Gylfaginning, Ragnarök still ends with Odin killed by the wolf Fenrir. All that choosing and feasting is a rehearsal for defeat.

What did Valkyries look like?

They looked like armed riders. In Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, light flashes over the mountains and women appear under helmets, mail-coats spattered with blood, rays shining from their spears. In Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, three times nine maidens ride past, one in front, white under her helmet; their horses shake themselves, and from the manes dew falls into deep valleys and hail onto high trees. In Völuspá, the seeress sees Skuld holding a shield.

Were Valkyries swan-maidens?

In one Eddic poem, Völundarkviða, three women fly in from the south and sit by a lake spinning linen, their swan-shirts beside them. The prose introduction calls them valkyries: Hlaðguðr Swan-white, Hervör All-wise and Ölrún. Three brothers marry them — the smith Völundr takes Hervör — and after seven winters the women grow restless; in the ninth they fly away. In the late Hrómundar saga Gripssonar, Kára hovers over her lover Helgi's battle in swan shape until a sword-stroke brings her down.

Scholars debate whether swan-brides and battlefield choosers were originally the same beings or two kinds of supernatural women that merged over time.

Did Valkyries fall in love with mortal heroes?

In the heroic poems they are princesses rather than spirits. In Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, Sváva, daughter of King Eylimi, gives the silent young Helgi his name, tells him where to find a sword, and shields him in battle. In the two poems about Helgi Hundingsbani, Sigrún, daughter of King Högni, rides to Helgi to escape a forced betrothal. Helgi wins her in a war that kills her father, and her brother Dagr later kills Helgi with a spear lent by Odin. Sigrún curses her brother and spends a night with the dead Helgi in his burial mound.

Prose notes in the Codex Regius add a chain of rebirth: Sigrún was Sváva reborn, and she and Helgi were born again as Kára and Helgi Haddingjaskati, whose lost poem was called Káruljóð.

Who was Brynhildr?

Brynhildr, daughter of King Buðli in the Völsung legend, is the most famous valkyrie, and Odin punished her for disobedience. In Helreið Brynhildar, she says she sent the old king Hjálm-Gunnar to his death and gave victory to his young rival, which enraged Odin. He shut her inside a wall of shields and ruled that only a man who knew no fear could wake her. The prose of Sigrdrífumál adds that Odin had promised Hjálm-Gunnar the win, and that he pricked her with a sleep-thorn and decreed she would never fight again but marry. Sigurd the dragon-slayer rode through the fire around her hall and woke her.

Then the tragedy, told in the Eddic poems and the Völsunga saga: Sigurd, made to forget her, marries Guðrún and wins Brynhildr for her brother Gunnar by crossing the flames in Gunnar's shape. Learning the deception, Brynhildr drives Gunnar to have Sigurd killed, then stabs herself and is burned beside Sigurd on his pyre.

Is Brynhildr the same as Sigrdrífa? The sources disagree. In Sigrdrífumál, Sigurd wakes a valkyrie on the mountain Hindarfjall who teaches him runes; the prose names her Sigrdrífa, never Brynhildr, and Grípisspá appears to treat the two as different women. Snorri's Skáldskaparmál and the Völsunga saga say outright that the woman Sigurd wakes is Brynhildr. Some scholars read "Sigrdrífa" ("victory-urger") as an epithet rather than a separate person.

What are the Valkyries' names?

Völuspá, Grímnismál, Snorri's Gylfaginning and the þulur (versified name-lists preserved with Skáldskaparmál) record dozens of valkyrie names: Hildr and Gunnr (both "battle"), Geirskögul (spear-Skögul), Þrúðr ("strength," the same name as Thor's daughter Thrud, though no source says they are one), and Eir ("help, mercy"), also a healing goddess in Gylfaginning.

In the sources

• Poetic Edda (mainly the 13th-century Codex Regius) — Völuspá, Grímnismál, Vafþrúðnismál, Völundarkviða (swan-maidens), the three Helgi lays, Sigrdrífumál, Grípisspá and Helreið Brynhildar.
• Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda — Gylfaginning (valkyries at every battle, Valhalla) and Skáldskaparmál (Sigurd waking Brynhildr), with the þulur.
• Skaldic poems — Eiríksmál (Odin's reason for taking a brave king) and Hákonarmál (Göndul and Skögul choose Hákon).
• Sagas — Völsunga saga (Brynhildr's full story), Njáls saga (Darraðarljóð, in which valkyries, Hildr among them, weave on a loom weighted with men's heads on the day of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014), and Hrómundar saga Gripssonar (Kára in swan shape).

Contradictions to flag:

• Brynhildr vs Sigrdrífa. Sigrdrífumál never calls the sleeper Brynhildr and Grípisspá seems to keep them apart; Skáldskaparmál and the Völsunga saga identify the two.
• Choosers vs lovers. In Grímnismál and Gylfaginning valkyries are Odin's servants; in the Helgi lays they are princesses who choose for themselves.
• Freyja's half. Grímnismál and Gylfaginning give Freyja half the slain, but no source says whether valkyries serve her.
• Valkyrie or goddess? Skuld is both a Norn and a valkyrie in Völuspá and Gylfaginning; Eir is a healing goddess in Gylfaginning and a valkyrie in the þulur.

In popular culture

• Wagner. Die Walküre, the second opera of Der Ring des Nibelungen, opens its third act with the "Ride of the Valkyries," later used for the helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now (1979). Wagner's Brünnhilde is Odin's (Wotan's) favorite daughter, a family tie the Norse sources never give Brynhildr.
• Marvel. In Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie is the last survivor of an order of warrior women wiped out by Hela, an invented backstory.
• God of War (2018). The game makes eight valkyries and their queen, Sigrún, optional bosses trapped in corrupted bodies. Several of the names, such as Hildr, Göndul, Eir and Kára, come from the sources; the curse and the queen are pure invention.

Keep exploring

The valkyries deliver their chosen to Odin — but those who die of sickness or old age go below, to Hel: Ruler of the Norse Underworld. Meet the women who shape fate itself in The Norns, and for the two pantheons' rival visions of what death means, see Norse vs Greek Gods: Key Differences. Then test what you know with the Norse mythology quiz.