According to Viking mythology, when a warrior fell on the battlefield, he was greeted by a valkyrie—a supernatural, female figure
According to Viking mythology, when a warrior fell on the battlefield, he was greeted by a valkyrie—a supernatural, female figure. Valkyries protected some warriors but guided spear points and arrows into the bodies of others. In the Viking mind, battles were determined not by military prowess but through the agency of these fateful women. Mythical valkyries led slain heroes (the einherjar) from the battlefield to Odin’s magnificent hall. Built of weapons and armor, Valhalla was the promised land of a Viking warrior. The Poetic Edda, a collection of myths and heroic stories written in 13th-century Iceland, depicts Valhalla’s dramatic construction: “spear-shafts the building has for rafters, it’s roofed with shields, mail-coats are strewn on the benches.’’ A wolf hung above Valhalla’s western door, according to writings, and an eagle hovered over the wolf. In her translation of The Poetic Edda, medieval scholar Carolyne Larrington notes that these creatures are ‘’Germanic beasts of b