These ‘primal’ Valkyries did not visit the battlefield, swooping gracefully down to bear away their chosen heroes; instead, they were unleashed upon it and personified its harsh realities. Indeed, they appear to have literally represented aspects of the fighting, as revealed by their names. We know of some fifty-two individual Valkyries, and there are many, many more anonymously subsumed in collectives. It is extraordinary, and telling, how many different terms for ‘battle’ and ‘war’ can be found in the Valkyrie names. Clearly, many of them embodied the condition of combat itself, often
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