Valkyrie (Pendant in antiqued silver)

Ancient Germanic symbol, 33 x 40 mm, 925 old silver finish, two-faced design

A Valkyrie (debate [valkyːrə], also [valkyːrə]), also slaughter or sign maid is in Norse mythology a female ghosts from the wake of chief god Odin and Odin. The Valkyries are by the way the stroke of fate in relation to the Norns, Fylgien and Disen. You choose from the dead on the battlefield, the Einherjar ( "honorably Fallen") from, that they should enter into Valhalla. The name Valkyrie is a modern borrowing from Old Norse. The Norse word is valkyrja, plurality valkyrjar. It comes from the Old Norse words VALR ( "the bodies lying on the battlefield") and kjósa ( "select"). The Norse kjósa is elect akin to the German. The Old English term is wælcyrge. Their appearance was in Northern and Central Europe for centuries as todkündend. As "spirit" they meant the warriors of earlier times their capacity as "Todesengel", which led the people into the world of his ancestors. The Valkyries were originally probably dead demons who obeyed the warriors who fell on the battlefield. Gradually changed the idea of ​​Valhöll (Valhalla): Initially Valhöll was strewn with corpses battlefield, leading from the dead demons (Valkyries) who fell into a dead God. Later one imagined Valhöll than Óðinns Festhalle. In parallel, also changed the Valkyries of dead demons earthly warriors with a human face, which can fall in love with warriors, such as Valkyrie Sigrdrífa in Sigrdrífumál or Svafa in helgakviða hjörvarðssonar. The Vikings saw in auroras a sign of the presence of the Valkyries on the earth, and that somewhere a great battle had been beaten in the world: when the women rode across the battlefields and the Einherjar chose, the light of the moon reflected in their golden armor and conjured the "northern lights" in the sky.