numerous host; but how do the heroes pass their time when they are not drinking? Answer: Every day, as soon as they have dressed themselves, they ride out into the court, and there fight until they cut each other into pieces. This is their pastime. But when meal-time approaches, they remount their steeds and return to drink mead from the skulls of their enemies[1] in Valhal. Thus the Elder Edda:
The einherjes all
On Odin's plain
Hew daily each other,
While chosen the slain are.
From the battle-field they ride
And sit in peace with each other.
SECTION XVII. THE VALKYRIES (VALKYRJUR).
As the god of war, Odin sends out his maids to choose the fallen heroes (kjósa val). They are called valkyries and valmaids (valmeyar). The valkyries serve in Valhal, where they bear in the drink, take care of the drinking-horns, and wait upon the table. Odin sends them to every field of battle, to make choice of those who are to be slain and to sway the victory. The youngest of the norns, Skuld, also rides forth to choose the slain and turn the combat. More than a dozen valkyries are named in the Elder Edda, and all these have reference to the activities of war.
This myth about Odin as the god of war, about Valhal and the valkyries, exercised a great influence upon
- ↑ If the North American Review, or anybody else, thinks this is proof of barbarism, we can refer them to the monks in Trier, who preserved the skull of Saint Theodulf and gave sick people drink from it; and we know several other such instances. Our Norse ancestors were not, then, in this respect any more savage than the Christian bishops and monks. See North American Review, January, 1875, p. 195.
