valkyrie

Emil Doepler, Walkyrien (1905)

Meaning

Noun

Any of the female attendants of Odin, figures said to guide fallen warriors from the battlefield to Valhalla.

Origin

Borrowed from Old Norse valkyrja ("chooser of the slain"), plural valkyrjur, from Proto-Germanic *walakuzjǭ. Cognate to Old English wælcyrge. First attested in English as a proper noun (Valkyries) in the 1770s; attested as a common noun (valkyries) since the 1880s.

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