Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, Hildr (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

"battle"Orchard (1997:192).) is a

valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters').Orchard (1997:36) and Li ...

. Hildr is attested in the ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

'' as Högni's daughter and Hedin's wife in the ''

Hjaðningavíg Hjaðningavíg (the 'battle of the Heodenings'), the ''legend of Heðinn and Hǫgni'' or the ''Saga of Hild'' is a Germanic heroic legend about a never-ending battle which is documented in ''Sörla þáttr'', ''Ragnarsdrápa'', ''Gesta Danorum'', ...

''. She had the power to revive the dead in battlefields and used it to maintain the everlasting battle between Hedin and Högni. Hildr is also mentioned along with other valkyries in ''

Völuspá ''Völuspá'' (also ''Vǫluspá'', ''Vǫlospá'', or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress') is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It dates back to the tenth century and tells the story from Norse Mythology of ...

'', '' Darraðarljóð'' and other Old Norse poems. The Old Norse word ''hildr'' is a common noun meaning "battle" and it is not always clear when the poets had the valkyrie in mind, as a personification of battle.

Citations

General and cited references

* Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). ''The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson''. New York:

The American-Scandinavian Foundation The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Swe ...

. ''Available onlin
at Google Books
'. * Jónsson, Finnur (1931). ''Lexicon Poeticum''. S. L. Møllers Bogtrykkeri, København. * Orchard, Andy (1997). ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''. Cassell.

External links

* Feminine given names Valkyries {{Norse-myth-stub