Valhalla and the Valkyries Flashcards
What does the Valkyries do? Valkyrjur translates into?
Guide those who died valiantly in battle to Valhalla where they will feast and fight until the day of the final battle.
Valkyrjur = choosers of the slain
Breakdown what Valhalla, originally Valhalla means?
Val = dead body on battlefield
Holl = feating hall
Who gets to Valhalla?
“weapons-dead men”
“Valhalla was an enormous hall. It had 540 doors and each door allows 800 warriors to walk abreast.”
540 x 800 = 432,000 warriors in Valhalla
What does this specific number tell us?
The number 432,000, keeps appearing my many other mythologies, because it is linked to caclucatons of the stars and planets.
This was probably not known at the time of the “original” Norse Valhalla myth, meaning that it was enriched and embellished by details imported from abroad.
So if the Norse Valhalla myth have imported details from abroad what tourist experience could it relate to??
That Valhalla is a poetic description of attending gladiatorial gamed in the Roman Coliseum
The Valkyries (“chooser of the slain”) guide dead warriors to Valhalla (“Hall of the slain”), where they join the einherjar which refers to?
“one army” or “single fighter”
What is a Valkyrie?
- Not a separate species
- Women only
- Skin of feathers
- Fairly late appearance
- Not clear whether they choose or merely guide those already chosen to die
The romanticised and sexualised view of valkyries as beautiful sword maidens who sometimes have affairs with the warriors they chose is…?
a very late, in many instances 19th-century development.
Contrary to the romanticised and sexualised view of valkyries, some of the remaining earliest names point to a much darker origin. What are some of these names?
Hjalmthrimul (Helmet-Clatter), Hjörthrumul (Sword-Noise), Hijóô (Howling), Tanngnithr (Teeth-Grinder), Randgnithr (Shield-Scraper).
Initially, valkyries personify and express the terror and frenzy of hand-to-hand combat.
