Valkyrie Facts for Kids

Valkyrie.

The Valkyrie's Vigil by Edward Robert Hughes.

Valkyries (Old Norse: Valkyrja "Choosers of the Slain") are lesser goddesses in Norse Mythology. They serve the chief god Odin. Their task is to choose those who have died in the most heroic way in battle. The Valkyrie then carries the chosen one off to Valhalla. This chosen one would then be called einherjars. They would then be shared between Odin and Freyja. They would fight at Odin's side at Ragnarök, the battle at the end of the world. In Valhalla, the Valkyries would also serve drink and care for the well-being of the feasting warriors.

The old Norse people thought that Valkyries rode giant wolves, and that they had black wings which correspond to ravens; these two creatures both scavenge corpses on the battlefield symbolizing death and destruction. With the spread of Christianity the idea of what a Valkyrie was like changed more and more to a Romantic description of a beautiful woman.

Richard Wagner composed some operas, featuring Valkyries (German: Walküren, singular: Walküre). These operas are Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. They feature a story of a valkyrie Brünnhilde, her punishment for disobeying her father, and her falling in love with Siegfried. The music for the opening of Act Three of Die Walküre is very famous. It is called the Ride of the Valkyries.

Images for kids

The Ride of the Valkyrs (1909) by John Charles Dollman
Walkyrien (c. 1905) by Emil Doepler
Valkyrie (1908) by Stephan Sinding located in Churchill Park at Kastellet in Copenhagen, Denmark
Helgi und Sigrun (1901) by Johannes Gehrts
Valkyrie (1835) by Herman Wilhelm Bissen
A valkyrie speaks with a raven (1862) by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys
Ride of the Valkyries (around 1890) by Henry De Groux
Valhalla (1905) by Emil Doepler
A page from Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
A figure on horse meeting a figure carrying a shield (left) and one of numerous female silver figures (right)
The Rök Runestone
An Anglo-Saxon burial mound at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England
The Dises (1909) by Dorothy Hardy
The Norns (1889) by Johannes Gehrts
Freya (1882) by Carl Emil Doepler
A valkyrie examines a bottle of Söhnlein's "Rheingold" sekt in a 1901 Jugendstil advertisement
A silver figure of a woman holding a drinking horn found in Birka, Björkö, Uppland, Sweden.
Both silver, a female figure touches her hair while facing forward (left) and a figure sits atop a horse, facing another figure with a shield (right).
A female figure bears a horn to a rider on an eight-legged horse on the Tjängvide image stone in Sweden.
A female figure bearing a horn on runestone U 1163.

Valkyrie facts for kids

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