At 3:03:18 PM on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, Paul Hansen wrote:

> "val" in "valkyrja" doesn't mean "slain", but "chooser".

You're mistaken, I'm afraid. The 'chooser' element in
<valkyrja> is <-kyrja>; it's derived from the verb <kjósa>
'to choose'. The first element, <val->, is from <valr> 'the
slain' (not to be confused with the poetic term <valr>
'hawk, falcon', which belongs to a different declension).

Brian