The Valkyries serve Odin as choosers of the slain, riding over battlefields to select worthy warriors for Valhalla.
Brynhild was one of the Valkyries who defied Odin by granting victory to the wrong warrior. He punished her with a sleep-thorn and confined her within a ring of fire on Hindarfjall.
Sigrún rides among the Valkyries, choosing the slain on the battlefield where she first encounters Helgi Hundingsbani and claims him as her own.
Skuld is numbered among the Valkyries in the Völuspá, the youngest Norn who also rides to choose the slain on the battlefield, linking the weaving of fate to the harvest of the dead.
Þrúðr is named among the Valkyries in Grímnismál — Thor's own daughter bearing mead to the slain in her grandfather Odin's hall, a bridge between the thunder god's brute strength and the Allfather's claim on the battle-dead.
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.
The Valkyries ride over battlefields to choose the worthiest of the slain and bear them to Valhalla, where they serve the Einherjar mead in the golden hall each evening.
At Ragnarök, the Valkyries ride to the final battlefield of Vígríðr. They have spent ages selecting warriors for this moment, and now the Einherjar they chose march through Valhalla's doors to face the forces of chaos.
The Valkyries choose warriors slain in battle and escort them to Valhalla. Within the hall, they serve mead to the Einherjar, fulfilling both roles as selectors of the dead and attendants of the feast.
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