Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Norse mythology Any of the female attendants of Odin, figures said to guide fallen warriors from the battlefield to Valhalla.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse valkyrja ("chooser of the slain", singular), plural valkyrjur (plural), either from Germanic roots equivalent to, or formed in Norse from, the elements valr ("the slain") + kjósa ("to choose"). Cognate to Old English wælcyrge. First attested in English as a proper noun (Valkyries) in the 1770s; attested as a common noun (valkyries) since the 1880s.

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