The web is now woven and the battlefield reddened ![]() That will never grow old in the minds of men. We pronounce a great king destined to die Where the warrior banners are forging forward The blood-spattered shields that guarded the king. Where friends of ours are exchanging blows. Let us advance and wade through the ranks, Swords will gnaw like wolves through armor. Spears will shatter shields will splinter, Hild and Hjorthrimul, Sanngrid and Svipul. The Valkyries go weaving with drawn swords, With swords we will weave this web of battle. The shafts are iron-bound and arrows are the shuttles. Sometimes the blood-covered Valkyrie-prophetesses are seen themselves as weavers, as in the poem Darraðarljóð where the valkyries appear to prophesy the outcome of the next day's battle (describing the fall of Brian Boru to Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, 1014): For although it was woven of a very plain bright silk and had no figure embroidered on it yet always in time of war a raven seemed as it were to appear on it, in victory opening its beak and beating its wings, restless in its feet, but very quiet and drooping in its whole body in defeat. Enim uero dum esset implicissimo candidissimoque intextum serico, nulliusque figure in eo inserta esset imago, tempore belli semper in eo videbatur coruus ac se intextus, in uictoria suorum quasi hians ore excutiensque alas, instabilisque totoque corpore demissus.įor the Danes had a banner possessed of a wonderful property, which although I believe it will seem incredible to the reader, nevertheless, because it is true, I will insert it for him for the sake of truth. At times the female seeress was replaced by the work of women's hands in the form of a Raven Banner:Įrat namque eis uexillum miri portenti, quod licet credam posse esse incredibile lectori, tamen, quia uerum est, ueræ inseram lectioni. The Irish badb is at one and the same time a seeress foretelling the fate of men upon the battlefield and is also the carrion-crow or raven. The Valkyrie is related to the Celtic warrior-goddess, the Morrigan, who likewise may assume the form of the raven. The name in Old Norse, valkyrja, as well as Old English wælcyrge means literally, "chooser of the slain." The word for valkyrie was used by Anglo-Saxon scholars to gloss the names of the Greco-Roman goddeses of vengeance and retribution, the Furies or Erinyes, as well as for the Roman goddess of war, Bellona. The Valkyrie is, in the oldest strata of belief, a corpse goddess, represented by the carrion-eating raven. (signed) Coaching Our Warrior Women Gentle Reader:īronze Brooch from Lousgaard, Bornholm, Denmark. I'd appreciate any information you can give me on the topic.Īlso, if you have access to any images of Valkyries, that would be helpful as well in designing team jerseys and logos. ![]() I'd like to have our women's sports teams be called "the Valkyries" but it occurs to me that I should find out more about the Valkyries before I do so. The school mascot is "the Vikings" and features a grim visaged male warrior. Valkyries, Wish-Maidens, and Swan-Maids Dear Viking Answer Lady: I am a high school coach for girls' sports.
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