Valkyrie
The Valkyries (Old Norse: Valkyrjur, singular valkyrja - “choosers of the slain”) are female figures in Norse mythology; they are a group of female warriors of Odin who do not get married.
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Alternatively the Valkyries are servants to Freya. She negotiated with One Eye that her shield maidens would sort the honourable dead on the battlefield. Freya had first choice of half the slain to come to Sessrumnir, the other half were to be delivered to One Eye at Valhall.
Freya had fierce and respected warriors, they are responsible for choosing who live and die in battle, singling out those worthy of paradise. In the aftermath of battle, the Valkyries carry those whom they have chosen off to Valhalla, an enormous and majestic hall that lies in Asgard. Once there, these eïnherjar, as they are now called, are shared between Odin and Freyja, with half of them going to Valhalla and the other to Fólkvangr, Freyja's realm. In Valhalla, the eïnherjar feast and make revelry, as they are served and cared for by the Valkyries themselves.
The old Norse people thought that Valkyries rode giant wolves, and that they had black wings which correspond to ravens; these two creatures both scavenge corpses on the battlefield symbolizing death and destruction. With the spread of Christianity the idea of what a Valkyrie was like changed more and more to a Romantic description of a beautiful woman.
Operas
Richard Wagner composed some operas featuring Valkyries (German: Walküren, singular: Walküre). These operas are Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. They feature a story of a Valkyrie Brünnhilde, her punishment for disobeying her father, and her falling in love with Siegfried. The music for the opening of Act Three of Die Walküre is very famous. It is called the Ride of the Valkyries.
Valkyrie Media
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.
The "valkyrie from Hårby", silver-gilt figurine depicting a female figure with a sword and shield, often interpreted to be a valkyrie.
The valkyries Hildr, Þrúðr and Hlökk bearing ale in Valhalla (1895) by Lorenz Frølich
Valkyrie (1908) by Stephan Sinding located in Churchill Park at Kastellet in Copenhagen, Denmark
Brünnhilde wakes and greets the day and Siegfried, illustration of the scene of Wagner's Ring inspired by the Sigrdrífumál, by Arthur Rackham (1911).
Valkyrie (1835) by Herman Wilhelm Bissen
A valkyrie speaks with a raven in a wood-engraving by Joseph Swain after Frederick Sandys, 1862
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