The Rise of the Valkyries

The Rise of the Valkyries

Life and death in a Viking battle depended not on military prowess, but on the favour of the valkyries. Why were these mythical figures, who decided a warrior’s fate, female?

Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir

Hákonarmál is part of this Norse tradition, revelling in the glory and glamour of war. The poet emphasises the king’s valour and skilful fighting, and the descriptions of the battle – swords clanging, shields clashing and blood spilling – are vivid. Eventually, Gondul and Skogul’s decision is carried out and the valkyries ride to Valhalla to announce the king’s imminent arrival. With their profound power over death, the valkyries play their well-defined part in propaganda intended to convince people to sacrifice their own life, or that of others. In myths about valkyries, we see an attempt to elevate the banality of war – to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies – glorious and worthwhile. The randomness of who is hit by a flying spear or arrow, and who isn’t, is rationalised as a warrior’s destiny and good fortune, the deliberate choice of a supernatural being sent by Odin.

Despite the stereotype of Vikings as fearless warriors, the valkyrie also engages with the apprehensions some of these men might have had about going to war, perhaps for years, many leaving their wives and family behind. Hákonarmál opens with the striking image of the two valkyries riding off to the battle when it is about to begin, before moving quickly to a heroic portrait of the king and his army, spears brandished, the royal standard flying. However, after the battle, as the mortally wounded king lays bleeding, he has a conversation with Skogul, asking her why things transpired as they did. It is hard to tell whether the poet intends Hákon’s words to express disbelief, anger or disappointment, but his statement that ‘we were worthy of gain from the gods’, suggests that the king felt hard done by.

"the valkyries play their well-defined part in propaganda intended to convince people to sacrifice their own life, or that of others."

Eve
Salome
Helen of Troy
etc.

Mythology is full of women "influencing" men in this way.  Maybe that is why they had to be female.