Valkyrie

“ There were three of them, all with receiving helmets on. And she seemed a head taller than usual, wingy, sparkling, flying like an ancient Valkyrie; the bluish sparks from the radio seemed to emanate from her—from her also that ethereal, lightning-like odor of ozone. ”

“ Swaying there like a furred Valkyrie above the final carnage of men and gods, she touched his imagination, and the blood surged exultingly along unknown channels, thrilling and uplifting.
"'The stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread the path of Hel, and heaven is cloven. ”

“ It is your work! You did your ‘duty’! Well . . .” She tore her hand from mine; the Valkyrie helmet with indignant wings was soon to be seen some distance in front of me. I was alone, torpid, silent. Like everyone else I followed into the dining saloon. ”

“ There came a sudden rush and so close a press about me that I had not room for the swinging of my wet axe. The Roman short sword is most keen and, driven into a man’s side and cleanly through him, he must reach the earth. The feet of a host of charging legionaries passed over and beyond me, and there came to my ears their distant shout of triumph.
The blood is flowing from my side and I am weakening and dying. The Valkyrie are circling in the sky. It is the end. How will they appear to me and how receive me, Odin, the all-father ”

“ VALHALLA (hall of the choice) , name of the celebrated banqueting hall of Odin, in Valaskialf, and theatre of the convivial festivities of the gods and Einherier.
VALKYRIE, pl. Valkyrior, name of the celestial virgins who attend the fields of battle in order to carry off to Valhalla the souls of the heroes who fall. They are mounted on white horses, with fiery manes and tails. At the banquets of Valhalla they hand round to the guests the mead and ale. The word Valkyrie means chooser of the slain, because they choose from the heaps of slain those who have shown most courage. ”

“ Woden sends his wish–maidens, called Valkyrie, who fly through the air to choose the [Pg 28] heroes that are to fall. Often the best and bravest are taken, sometimes the very young, sometimes a warrior waits long and fights in many battles before his turn comes. No good warrior fears the Valkyrie. They are to be loved, not feared. ”

“ He kisses her long on the eyes, and with these closed she sinks back softly into his arms, unconscious. He carries her gently to a low mossy mound, and lays her there beneath the broad-spreading pine-tree which overshadows it. He gazes at her and closes her helmet; his eyes then rest on the form of the sleeper, which he completely covers with the great steel shield of the Valkyries. Having done so, he moves slowly away, turning to take one more sorrowful look. Then he strides with solemn resolve to the middle of the stage, and points his sword towards a large rock. ”

“ But a banquet eternal in Asagard’s dome,
All sense of past sufferings assuage: [lxxiii]
See her fiery-maned steed the Valkyrie bestride
Towards Valhall fresh hosts of Einherier to guide!
O’er the heath, where the warriors in battle array
Stand glitt’ring in armour, she flies;
To death first she dooms them, then bears off her prey
To partake of the bliss of the skies ”

“ The sad song still rises from the depths of the Rhine, but it is overpowered by the strains of the march, and pealing music from the castle. The curtain falls upon their laments, and the triumphant entrance of the gods into their new home.
DIE WALKÜRE. In "The Valkyrie," properly the first part of the cyclus, the human drama begins. Strong races of men have come into existence, and Wotan's Valkyres watch over them, leading those who fall in battle to Walhalla, where, in the gods' companionship, they are to pass a glorious life. ”

“ He draws her to him with fervent passion. The curtain falls quickly.
THE SECOND ACT
A wild, mountainous spot. In the background a gorge rises from below to a high ridge of rocks, from which the ground slopes down again towards the front. Wotan, in full armour, carrying his spear. Before him Brünnhilde as a Valkyrie, also fully armed. ”

“ When the heroes are not feasting they amuse themselves with fighting. Every day they ride out into the court or field and fight until they cut each other in pieces. This is their pastime; but when meal time comes they recover from their wounds and return to feast in Valhalla.
THE VALKYRIE The Valkyrie are warlike virgins, mounted upon horses and armed with helmets and spears. Odin, who is desirous to collect a great many heroes in Valhalla to be able to meet the giants in a day when the final contest must come, sends them down to every battlefield to make choice of those who shall be slain. ”

“ And if storm was coming over the earth, here above all would the clouds gather, and gloom and mix together till the power of the heavens willed that they should go on their appointed journeys of wrath or mercy to the thirsty earth. Thus the Valkyries, the wild maidens of the storm, were often wont to come here, riding on the wings of the wind, for their joy was in tempest and strife, and they cared little for peace and content, and their home was with the thunder, and the lightning was the lantern they loved best. ”

“ When, after great victories over the Hundings, the hereditary foes of his family, he sat resting on a rock in the fir-woods, light suddenly burst from the sky, from whose radiance beams darted like shining lances, and from the clouds rode the Valkyries, who--according to the beautiful religion of our ancestors--are hero-maidens who decide the destinies of battle, and bear the fallen heroes up to the shield-wainscoted halls of the god of victory. ”

“ But towards evening, though the rain abated not, nor the mad riot of the winds, a man might hear very far away the rhythmical tramping of some deathless steed, as one of the wild Valkyries approached, or far away a light would break out among the clouds showing where another rode lightly on the very winds and airs of heaven. Thus flying and galloping from every quarter of the world, that glorious company began to assemble, and the storm screamed welcome to them with many voices. ”

“ The Otherworlds of the Teutons were Valhalla, the abode of the heroes whom death had found on the battlefield, and Niflheim, "the misty realm," secure from the cold outside, ruled over by Queen Hel. Valkyries, warlike women who rode through the air on swift horses, seized the heroes from the field of slaughter, and took them to the halls of Valhalla, where they enjoyed daily combats, long feasts, and drinking-bouts, music and story-telling. ”

“ He draws the sword with a violent effort from the stem of the tree and shows it to the amazed and enraptured Sieglinde. Siegmund the Wälsung Thou dost see! As bride-gift He brings thee this sword; With this he frees The woman most blest; He bears thee From the house of his foe. ”

“ In an outburst of grief he bends tenderly over Sieglinde. Woe! Woe! Woman most sweet! Most sad and ill-starred of all true ones!
Against thee rages The whole world in arms, And I who was all thy defence,
For whom thou the world hast defied——
To think I cannot Shield thee, but, beaten In battle, thy trust must betray!
O shame on him Who bestowed the sword, And triumph now turns to scorn!
If I must fall thus, I fare to no Walhall—— Hella hold me for aye! ”

“ VALKYRIES (Old Norse valkyriur, “choosers of the slain”) , figures of Norse mythology, generally represented as divine (less frequently human) maidens who ride through the air on Odin’s service. Clad in full armour they are sent forth to determine the course of battles and to select brave warriors for Valhalla (q.v.) ”

“ A gleam of fire issues from the stone and gradually becomes a fiery glow; flickering flames break forth. Soon wild, shooting flames surround Wotan, who, with his spear, directs the sea of fire to encircle the rock. It spreads towards the background, so that the mountain is surrounded by flame. Let none who fears The spear of Wotan Adventure across this fire! ”

“ The Story / of / Yvashka with the Bear’s Ear / Translated from the Russian / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913. Square demy octavo, pp. 23. [See ante, Part I, No. 26.]
The Story was also included in The Avon Booklet, Vol. ii, 1904, pp. 199–210.
(18) Once a Week, Vol. vii, August 2nd, 1862, pp. 152–155.
Harald Harfagr. A Discourse Between a Valkyrie and a Raven, &c. [Ye men wearing bracelets]
Reprinted (under the amended title The Valkyrie and Raven) in The Nightingale, The Valkyrie and Raven, and Other Ballads, 1913, pp. 11–20. ”

“ The principal source was the Volsunga Saga, while lesser parts were taken from the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda, and others from the Nibelungen Lied, the Ecklenlied, and other Teutonic folklore.
In the drama there are at first only four distinct races,—the gods, the giants, the dwarfs, and the nymphs. Later, by a special creation, there come the valkyrie and the heroes. ”

“ Even our Valkyries were stolen from us and made into angels, and the wings of the Valkyries' horses became attached to the shoulders of the angels. And our Helheim of that day of ice and frost has become the hell of today, which is so hot an abode that the blood boils in one's veins, while with us, in our Helheim, the place was so cold as to freeze the marrow inside the bones. And the very sky, that we dreamed enduring, eternal, has drifted and veered, so that we find today the Scorpion in the place where of old we knew the Goat, and the Archer in the place of the Crab. ”

“ The Valkyries, it seems, were delivering a package of lemon flavored Jell-O to the cook in Valhalla, and en route, had gotten frozen in the ice. The elephant was their mode of conveyance since all the good horses had a day off and went to the people races at Lowaleah.
The Aardvark heard all of this in a rather detached way, for you know most Aardvarks can neither talk, write, nor understand human language.... The Valkyries who perceived this deficiency were contemplating giving the Aardvark some of their Valkyrie Local Number 86112 Magic, Pat. ”

“ The fire collapses. From the flame which leaps up a bright light falls on the spot in the ash-tree’s stem indicated by Sieglinde’s look, and on which the hilt of a sword is now plainly visible.
Sieglinde prepares Hunding’s draught for the night
See p. 87
What can that be That shines so bright? ”

“ She hastens away to the right in front. The rocky peak is surrounded by black thunderclouds. A fearful sorm rages from the back. A fiery glows increases in strength to the right. Wotan’s voice Stay, Brünnhilde! Ortlinde and Waltraute
Coming down from the look-out. The rock is reached By horse and rider! ”

“ It was believed that during a battle warriors sometimes saw Valkyrias coming to their help: how grand and beautiful must have been the vision created in their mind by their faith in them, as they thought they saw them riding on their fiery steeds, and sweeping over the battle-field, by land or by sea. It is hard to realise a grander picture for a warrior to behold. ”

“ Beautiful arms and armor they were, such as could be designed and fashioned only by a god—a sword and a spear, and a helmet with a blazing crest, and a breastplate of flaming bronze, and greaves of gold and electrum. But most wonderful of all was the shield, upon which were depicted the glories and triumphs in later ages of the mighty men of Rome, the descendants of Iulus, for Vulcan, being a god, had the gift of seeing into futurity. ”

“ And first the footsteps of a god he found.
“Arms! arms!” he cries; “the sword and shield prepare,
And send the willing chief, renew’d, to war.
This is no mortal work, no cure of mine,
Nor art’s effect, but done by hands divine.
Some god our general to the battle sends;
Some god preserves his life for greater ends.”
The hero arms in haste; his hands infold
His thighs with cuishes of refulgent gold:
Inflam’d to fight, and rushing to the field,
That hand sustaining the celestial shield,
This gripes the lance, and with such vigour shakes,
That to the rest the beamy weapon quakes. ”

“ Then comes a flare of flame that shines from the shield of the Daughter of the God, as she throws it over the hero to protect and save him. It is all in vain, for there comes a hot, red glow in which for an instant all the rest is lost, and now, in the midst of it stands the Father of the Gods himself. The daughter falls back helpless before him, and he stretches his spear toward the hero. The magic sword falls upon the spear and is shivered to pieces. ”

“ Kieron cut a circle of death with his long, outworld weapon, the fighting blood of a hundred generations of warriors singing in his ears. The savage chant of the Edge rose above the confused sounds of battle. A man screamed in agony as his arm was severed by a blow from a Valkyr blade, and he waved the stump desperately, spattering the milling men with dark blood. A Valkyr warrior went down, locked in a death-embrace with a Kalgan warrior, driving his dagger into his enemy again and again even as he died. ”

“ The Valkyrs are Choosers of the Slain: a Destiny inexorable, which it is useless trying to bend or soften, has appointed who is to be slain; this was a fundamental point for the Norse believer;—as indeed it is for all earnest men everywhere, for a Mahomet, a Luther, for a Napoleon too. It lies at the basis this for every such man; it is the woof out of which his whole system of thought is woven. The Valkyrs; and then that these Choosers lead the brave to a heavenly Hall of Odin ”

“ His helmet-spike blazes, flame pours from the cresting plumes, and the golden shield-boss spouts floods of fire; even as when in transparent night comets glow blood-red and drear, or the splendour of Sirius, that brings drought and sicknesses on wretched men, rises and saddens the sky with malignant beams.
Yet gallant Turnus in unfailing confidence will prevent them on the shore and repel their approach to land. 'What your prayers have sought is given, the sweep of the sword-arm. The god of battles is in the hands of men. ”