Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun Scandinavian Mythology.
- any of the beautiful maidens attendant upon Odin who bring the souls of slain warriors chosen by Odin or Tyr to Valhalla and there wait upon them.
noun
- Norse myth any of the beautiful maidens who serve Odin and ride over battlefields to claim the dead heroes and take them to Valhalla
1768, one of 12 war-maidens who escorted the brave dead to Valhalla, from Old Norse valkyrja, literally “chooser of the slain,” from valr “those slain in battle” (see Valhalla) + kyrja “chooser,” from ablaut root of kjosa “to choose,” from Proto-Germanic *keusan, from PIE *geus- “to taste, choose” (see gusto). Old English form was Wælcyrie, but they seem not to have figured as largely in Anglo-Saxon tales as in Scandinavian. German Walküre (Wagner) is from Norse.