Wodan commands the Valkyrie, spectral choosers of the slain who ride forth to claim fallen warriors and bear them to his hall.
⚠ Valkyrie are primarily attested in Norse sources; their presence in broader Germanic tradition is reconstructed from comparative evidence and Anglo-Saxon cognates (wælcyrge).
Brunhild was a valkyrie in the service of Wodan before she defied his will by granting victory to the wrong king in battle. As punishment, Wodan stripped her of her valkyrie status and placed her in an enchanted sleep behind a wall of flames.
The Norse Valkyries and the Germanic idisi descend from the same Proto-Germanic tradition of supernatural women who bind and loose the fates of warriors on the battlefield, attested in the Second Merseburg Charm and the Eddas alike.
Wayland and his two brothers married three Valkyrie swan-maidens who had set aside their feathered cloaks by a lake. After seven winters, the Valkyrie donned their cloaks and flew away, leaving Wayland to craft golden rings while awaiting his wife Hervör's return.
The Valkyrie ride as Wodan's spectral cavalry in the Wild Hunt, the terrifying nocturnal procession that tears across winter skies. Their thunderous hoofbeats and shrieking cries herald the host of the restless dead.
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