Valkyrie

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative spelling of valkyrie. alt-of, alternative
  2. 2
    Any of the female attendants of Odin, figures said to guide fallen warriors from the battlefield to Valhalla. Norse

    "Wagner's “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (1853) famously features valkyries."

  3. 3
    (Norse mythology) one of the maidens of Odin who chose heroes to be slain in battle and conducted them to Valhalla wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

The proper noun Valkyries was attested before the common noun valkyries. See the entry valkyrie for more.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old Norse valkyrja sg (“chooser of the slain”), plural valkyrjur pl, from Proto-Germanic *walakuzjǭ. Cognate to Old English wælcyrġe. First attested in English as a proper noun (Valkyries) in the 1770s; attested as a common noun (valkyries) since the 1880s.

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