The Valkyries — Women Who Choose the Slain

There are women in the old Norse stories who do not wait for someone to rescue them. They ride into battle. They carry weapons. They choose who will fall.

And they decide who will be taken beyond the battlefield. They are the Valkyries. The Old Norse name is usually understood as “choosers of the slain.”

They are among the most powerful female beings in Norse mythology, standing at the meeting place between life and death, battle and destiny, the human world and the world of the gods.

They are not simply beautiful warrior women. They are something older and more frightening. They are women who have authority over death.

Where Do the Valkyries Live?

The Valkyries are closely connected with Óðinn and his hall, Valhöll — Valhalla. There, the warriors chosen from battle become the einherjar, the warriors who will eventually stand with the gods at Ragnarök.

The Valkyries are therefore not merely escorts for the dead. They belong to a much larger cosmic story of battle, death, honour and the final struggle.

But the Valkyries do not seem to belong exclusively to one place. In the poems of the Poetic Edda, they are seen riding through the world.

They appear in the sky. They come to battlefields. They ride across mountains. They arrive where warriors are fighting.

In one of the heroic poems, nine Valkyries are seen riding together, and one of them approaches the hero Helgi.

They are therefore beings of movement. They cross boundaries. They travel between worlds. And this is one reason their symbolism remains so powerful for modern practitioners of witchcraft.

Their Appearance

The Valkyrie does not have to become less feminine in order to become powerful. The Valkyries are usually imagined as magnificent warrior women.

They may appear wearing armour, carrying spears and riding powerful horses. The Valkyrie woman can be beautiful and terrifying.

I saw two Valkyries men appear in my home when Fennrir called them to protect me and him. Strange, but these Valkyries were man. They were humanoids with horns and their clothing was very casual.

The Valkyries drank the blood of my enemies in the astral and I understood: this can be used in blood magick.

Some of the old imagery surrounding Valkyries also connects them with wolves and other animals, and the poetic tradition gives us striking images of supernatural warrior women moving through the sky and battlefield.

This is not the gentle guardian angel of later imagination. The Valkyrie belongs to a harsher world. A world in which death is part of life. A world in which courage is tested.

A world in which honour is something demonstrated through action.

The Valkyrie and Death

There is something profound about the Valkyries’ relationship with death. They do not represent death as something meaningless.

They stand beside those who have reached the end of their earthly journey. They carry the chosen warrior onward. This makes them guides between worlds.

The Valkyrie and the Witch

So how might a Valkyrie help a practitioner of witchcraft? Not by becoming a supernatural servant who performs every task on command. That would diminish what the Valkyrie represents.

Instead, the relationship can be understood as one of alliance, learning and inspiration. A practitioner may turn toward Valkyrie symbolism when working with:

courage and personal strength
protection
boundaries
overcoming fear
transformation
endings and new beginnings
ancestral or warrior symbolism
standing firmly in one’s own power
guidance during difficult transitions

The Valkyrie teaches the Witch to stand upright. To look directly at what frightens her. To stop apologising for her strength.

To understand that protection does not always mean hiding. Sometimes protection means being prepared to stand your ground.

Valkyries are strongly associated with Óðinn, with battle and with the fate of warriors. Some sources also connect the selection of the slain with Freyja, who is said to receive a portion of those who die in battle in Fólkvangr.

Encounters with Valkyries

Perhaps you encounter her in meditation. Perhaps in dreams. Perhaps in the image of a woman on horseback appearing again and again.

Perhaps it is simply the feeling that arises when you stand before something difficult and suddenly discover that you are not afraid.

The historical Valkyries rode into the battlefield. The modern Witch may encounter them in very different places and this is what happened to me when Fennrir called the Valkyries to protect us both from our astral enemies.