The Valkyrie Song

The heavens are stained with the blood of men,

As the Valkyries sing their song

Njal’s Saga

The lots of life and death were distributed by the Valkyries, the handmaidens of Odin in the warrior hall of Valhalla.

It was the Valkyries, their terrible war cries filling the heavens, who swept across the battlefield, gathering up the souls of those to whom they had allocated death.

In Old Norse, Valkyrja means chooser of the slain.