valkyrie

thumb|The picture stone Lilbjärs III, showing a helmeted woman receiving a man with a horn of mead. On picture stones, the recurring motif of a woman receiving a man with a horn is generally interpreted as a dead man being received by a valkyrie at Valhalla. thumb|The Valkyrie from Hårby|The "valkyrie from Hårby", silver-gilt figurine depicting a female figure with a sword and shield, often interpreted to be a valkyrie. In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters'). When the are not preparing for the cataclysmic events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans, boars or wolves.

Valkyries are attested in the Poetic Edda (a book of poems compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources), the Prose Edda, the (both by Snorri Sturluson) and the (one of the Sagas of Icelanders), all written—or compiled—in the 13th century. They appear throughout the poetry of skalds, in a 14th-century charm, and in various runic inscriptions.