The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

by Neil Price

As agents of fate, the Valkyries also have obvious links with the Norns, and Snorri even says that the “youngest” Norn, Skuld, rides with the Valkyries to choose the slain. In a strange battle poem called The Web of Spears, dating to either the tenth or eleventh centuries, a troupe of twelve horse-borne Valkyries are seen dismounting to enter a cottage. When the observer peeks inside, he sees them working an immense loom made of human body parts, weaving a cloth of entrails dyed with blood, using weapons for tools. The women sing verses that make it clear they are, in fact, weaving the outcome of a distant battle, the motions of their implements mimicking (and effecting) the dart and swoop of projectiles on the field. Here, the Valkyries and Norns are truly combined. When the cloth is finished, they tear it to shreds and ride off with the scraps. The Valkyries were the essence of violence, unsettling and terrible.