In his role as god of battle & the dead Odin was assisted by the Valkyries. They are depicted as Amazon-like warrior-women or goddesses, tall, strong & clad in battle amour with black faces & long flowing hair. They sometimes appeared as swans but more usually as Ravens or carrion Crows flying over the battlefield. The Valkyries rode on Horseback through the sky above the battle & swooped down to collect the souls of the dead warriors. They carried the heroes across their saddles & back to Valhalla. The name Valkyrie is in fact a title & means "the chooser of the slain". In Anglo-Saxon the word is translated as " waelcyrge" & has the meaning of "corpse eater". In this Saxon version they are represented as a triple goddess of death & battle, similar to the Irish Morrigan, the Furies of Greek myth or the Nordic goddesses known as the Norns.
In many ways the Valkyries had much in common with the Norns, the triad of Norse goddesses of fate who weave the destiny of the human race on their cosmic loom or spinning wheel. Visions of the Valkyries were sometimes seen before a battle by those who were about to die & this reminds one of the Irish banshees or "spirit women" who are a folkloric version of the Morrigan. In the 11th century Irish warriors reported seeing a group of dark faced women in tattered grey cloaks weaving human entrails on a loom & using a human skull as a shuttle. A poem in one of the Norse sagas refers to this vision & quotes the words sung by the women, who are of course Valkyries.
We weave, we weave the web of the spear,
as on goes the standard of the brave,
we shall not let him lose his life,
for the Valkyries have the power to
choose the slain,
All is sinister now to see,
a cloud of blood moves over the sky,
the air is red with the blood of men,
as the battle women chant their song.
Other versions of the Valkyries are less detailed, but no less relevant. In 1066 one of the warriors in the king of Norway's army reported that just before he departed for England he experienced a strange dream. He saw a great Witch-wife standing on an island (England) with a fork in one hand & a trough in the other. He saw this as a sign that the army would be defeated, as the Witch would use the fork to rake up the corpses & would fill the trough with blood. In this story the Witch can be interpreted as the goddess of death & battle. Another warrior experience a similar dream. He saw another huge Witch-wife riding on a Wolf in front of the English army. The Wolf carried the body of a man in its mouth from which blood was dripping. As the Wolf ate one body the Witch threw it another to eat. The Norwegians, of course, met in battle with king Harold at Stamford bridge in 1066 & were defeated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information taken from: Mysteries of the Runes by Michael Howard
printed by Capall Bann
