vanir 113 his cleverest disguises. He won her in the end by using magic runes, and she agreed to marry him.
Nine months later Vali, a newborn with hands as yet unwashed and hair uncombed, walked over Bilrost into Asgard. To everyone’ s amazement, he started to grow and grow until he was as big as a man. Odin realized that the boy was his son Vali. Vali drew an arrow from the quiver that he would always carry and shot it at Hodur, who died instantly, and Balder’ s death was avenged.
Vali became one of the youngest warrior gods, a god of light, and was one of the few to survive Ragnarok.
Valkyries( Choosers of the Slain) Warrior maidens of the god Odin. They chose men doomed to die in battle and delivered them to Odin’ s Valhalla( Hall of the Slain). There the resurrected heroes enjoyed a life of unending feasting and fighting, preparing for Ragnarok, the end of the world.
The maidens went down to Midgard in full armor, their golden hair flying from underneath their winged helmets. They would hover over the chosen warriors in the thick of battle. When a hero fell dead or mortally wounded, a Valkyrie would sweep him up and carry him on horseback to Asgard, where the gods lived.
The Valkyries had such names as Shrieker and Screamer, Storm Raiser, Axe Time, Spear Bearer, Shield Bearer, Mist, and others. The number of Valkyries varied between six, nine, and 13 at a time.
In some stories, Freya herself was the goddessleader of the Valkyries. She was allowed to choose warriors to be entertained in her hall, Sessrumnir, in her realm, Folkvang, instead of sending them to Odin’ s Valhalla.
In Valhalla, the Valkyrie maidens would don graceful gowns and serve the Einherjar( slain heroes) with food and drink.
Most of the maidens were from Asgard, daughters of the gods and goddesses. Some were Odin’ s daughters. Odin allowed some of the maidens to take the form of beautiful white swans, but if a Valkyrie was seen by a human without her swan-like disguise, she would become an ordinary mortal and could never again return to Valhalla.
The German composer Richard Wagner wrote an opera The Valkyries( Die Walküre) as part of the Ring des Nibelungen cycle. In it Brunhilda is chief of the Valkyries. Wagner’ s“ Ride of the Valkyries” is cited as one of the most stirring pieces of 19th-century orchestral music.
Statue of a Valkyrie in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Norwegian sculptor Stephan Sinding( 1846 – 1922)( Photo by Leonard G./ Used under a Creative Commons license)
Vanaheim The realm or kingdom of the Vanir, the gods of the Earth, fertility, and plenty. This realm was neighbor to Asgard, home of the Aesir gods. After the great Aesir / Vanir War, Odin, the greatest of the Aesir, sent the gods Hoenir and Mimir to Vanaheim, and the Vanir sent Njord, Frey, and Freya to Asgard.
Vanaheim also refers to the Tanais, an ancient name for the Don River in western Russia.
Vanir A race of gods and goddesses who lived in Vanaheim. They were the original gods, more ancient than the Aesir. They were gods of fertility. Chief among them were the twin deities Frey and Freya. After the war with the Aesir( see Aesir / Vanir War), Frey, Freya, and their father, Njord, and possibly Heimdall went to live in Asgard, home of the Aesir. After that war, all the gods were referred to as Aesir.
The Vanir gods brought peace and plenty to Asgard. They also brought their knowledge of seid, magic and witchcraft, and instructed the Aesir in its practice. The Vanir were worshipped for centuries in northern lands.