Thank's for the links, Patricia,

"The legacy of the Valkyrie lives on in the word "valour", a
reference to heroism in battle"--first I've heard of this!! But the
wolf steed is indeed attested on the 9th century Rök stone.

http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enorsemyths/wildhunt/rokstone.html

"steed of Gunnr", Gunnr being the name of one of the Valkyries, also
a word for battle = OE gúþ. On the other hand, giantesses and
trolls are the riders in the "steed" based kennings for wolf at
listed here:

http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/kennings/allwolf.html


In Gylfaginning, the giantess Hyrrokkin arrives riding a wolf with
snakes for reins, when she comes to push Baldr's ship onto the pyre.

"Þá var sent í Jötunheima eftir gýgi þeiri, er Hyrrokkin hét. En er
hon kom ok reið vargi ok hafði höggorm at taumum, þá hljóp hon af
hestinum, en Óðinn kallaði til berserki fjóra at gæta hestsins, ok
fengu þeir eigi haldit, nema þeir felldi hann."

Shame about the wolf. Obviously one of those days where *nothing*
goes right.


The supposed Gothic *valakusjo (or *walakusjo, as we'd probably
spell it nowadays), quoted on one of those sites, is a modern
reconstructions, probably taken from Grimm's Teutonic Mythology
(Deutsche Mythologie), as I think is OHG OHG *walachuria (It's not
in Gerhard Köbler's Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch). The Old English
word is attested though:

"wæl-cyrge, -cyrige, -eyrie, an; f. A chooser of the slain.
According to the mythology, as seen in its Northern form, the Val-
kyrjur were the goddesses who chose the slain that were to be
conducted by them to Odin's hall -- Valhalla : ' þær ríða jafnan at
kjósa val. " Something of the old idea is still shewn in the
following glosses, in which the word renders a Fury, a Gorgon, or
the goddess of war :-- Uualcyrge Tisifone, Wrt. Voc. ii. 122, 34:
Etirynis, 107, 43. Walcrigge Herinis, no, 34. Wælcyrge, 43, 2:
Bellona, 94, 15: 12, 12. Wælcyrige Allecto, 5, 72. Wælcyrie
Tisiphona, i. 60, 21. Ða deór habbaþ wælkyrian eágan = hae bestie
oculos habent Gorgoneos, Nar. 34, 6. But elsewhere it is used
apparently with the sense of witch or sorceress: -- Wyccan and
wælcyrian and unlybwyrhtan, Wulfst. 298, 18. Wiccan and wælcerian,
165, 34. Wiccean and wælcyrian, Chart. Erl. 231, 10. [Clerkes out of
Caldye . . . wyches & walkyries . . . deuinores of demorlaykes . . .
sorsers & exorsismus, Allit. Pins. 85, 1. 577. /cel. val-kyrja.]"

(Bosworth & Toller)

http://penguin.pearson.swarthmore.edu/scrist1/cgi-bin/gmc_query_two?
cmd=formquery&word=w%E6lcyrge&startrow=0

http://beowulf.engl.uky.edu/%7Ekiernan/BT/bosworth.htm


Hah, "demorlaykes", what the Nazgul rode, almost...

Back to Norse, I forgot to mention there's the three valkyries in
Völundarkviða who fly over Myrkwood in the form of swans. They´re
all the daughters of human kings, not Odin. Their parentage is
referred to in both the prose introduction and the poem, but the
actual word 'valkyrjur' only crops up in the prose.

Llama Nom


PS, another handy address:

http://www.home.no/norron-mytologi/diverse/kilder.htm







--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:

> http://www.answers.com/topic/valkyrie
>
>
> http://www.valkyrietower.com/odin.htm
>
>
> http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/v_valkyries.htm
>
> Here are three sites some opinions are for and some are against

these Girls being Odin's daughters, there are other sites to look
upon , but it seems according to some, they do not ride horses but
Wolves.

> I have to admit that not one of my books provides a link to this,

I have accordingly believed in a myth for some time, but it is a
very pleasing one

> Blessings
> Patricia