In Norse mythology the Valkyries, “choosers of the slain” go out on battlefields to bring brave dead warriors back to Valhalla, Odin’s hall where they will fight and booze and have a good time until Ragnarok, the end of the world. The Norse believed that one day they would fight to the end. They even knew which gods would be killed by whom. So Odin was collecting an army for that day. After picking up the warriors the Valkyries would become waitresses and serve mead.
They are mentioned in the Eddas - Poetic and Prose which were not written till the early Middle Ages, by Christians (the Prose by Snorri Sturluson).
The first time I read the story of Brynhild, I was in my teens, and read it in the Volsunga Saga, a very old book found at a school fete. She was punished for sparing someone who was supposed to be killed, put to sleep and woke to be rescued by Sigurd(Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied and, of course, Wagner). They fall in love, but he travels on and forgets her, due to a potion. He marries someone else and fools Brynhild into marrying a man who isn’t impressive. At that point, she decides to kill him.
Diana L. Paxson focused on the Germanic Nibelungenlied in a historical fiction trilogy, starting with The Wolf And The Raven. Her heroine, Brunahild, is a relative of Attila the Hun. She is a Valkyrie, in this novel a priestess of Wotan. They are under orders to point their spears at warriors who have been chosen to be killed, only it’s not the Valkyries who get that choice. It’s all political.
But there is plenty of fiction with fantastical Valkyries in it. They appear in two Terry Pratchett novels. In Soul Music, Susan, the granddaughter of Death, has to take over the rounds while Death leaves in hopes of learning how to forget, after his adopted daughter dies. One of the places she goes is a battlefield where Valkyries arrive and one asks her if she is a soprano and invites her to join.
In Interesting Times, a teacher gives it up to travel with the Silver Horde, led by Cohen the Barbarian. When he is killed, he is hoping for an afterlife in Valhalla, and he gets it, because usually people get the afterlife they believe in.
In Tales Of Asgard, an animated feature, a spoiled teenage Thor loses his girlfriend Sif to the Valkyries, who are Odin’s elite female warriors. This is an MCU story; you may have seen the Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok.
My favourite Valkyrie, though, is Samirah, a Muslim girl and part time Valkyrie in Magnus Chase And The Sword Of Summer by Rick Riordan. Samirah’s mother, a doctor, fell in love with Loki when she was treating him, so Samirah is their daughter. In this novel, Valhalla is located in a five star hotel in Boston.
What else do you expect from the author of Percy Jackson?
All these books are available. The Volsunga Saga is free on Project Gutenberg.
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