TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

418 WISE WOMEN.
of victory, p. 133, note), is served in Valholl by maidens, and them
*
he sends out into every battle, to choose the slain, Sn. 39; kiosa er
KSnir ero/ Stem. 164b ; vildi )?ik kiosa, Seem. 254a .
Hence such a maiden, half divine, is called valkyrja ; and
it is another most welcome coincidence, that the AS. language
has retained the very same term wcelcyrie (waelcyrge, wselcyrre) to
English such Latin words as bellona, erinnys, Alecto, Tisiphone.
and employs it even for parca and venefica. The Cott. MS. Vitell.
A. 15 has a gloss wselcyrigean eagan, gorgoneus : this is translating
the Greek idea into an AS. one ; did the eyes of the waelcyrigean
instil horror like the Gorgons heads? I am quite safe in assuming
an OHG. walachurid (walachurra) ; valakusjd would be the Gothic
form. At the end of the Langobardian genealogy we find a man s
name Wo.lcausus)-
Another name of the valkyrjur is ON. valmeyjar (battle-maids),
perhaps also the present N"orw. valdoger, which Hallager 140 b says
is guardian-spirit. Again, they are called skialdmeyjar, hialmmeyjar,
because they go forth armed, under shield and helmet (vera und
hialmi, Saem. 15 l a 192 b ) ; nonnor Herjans, nuns of Oftinn 4 b . The
Edda bestows on the valkyrja the epithets: livit 168 b ,7m und hial
mi (alba sub galea) 145 b , Uort 174 b , sdlbiort, sunbright 167b , Hart-
lituff 142% hialmmtr 157 a , gullvariff 167 b , margullin
alvitr 164a , all descriptive of beauty
maer 145a
,
or helmet-ornaments. Helm
and shield distinguish these helm and shield women as much as
heroes, they ride on shield-service, under shield-roof, Seem. 250 b
and are called skialdmeyjar aldrstamar, or young shield-maidens o
Atli s court. The legend of the Amazons (Herod. 4, 110 117
Jorn. cap. 6.7.8. Paul. Diac. 1, 15) seems to rest on similar ye
different notions. A valkyr in Ssem. 167 b is named su&rcen (australis]
apparently in the sense of biort, solbiort ? Again at 151 b , disi
suSroenar (see Suppl.). 2
1 Of valr, wal itself we might seek the root in velja, valjan (eligere), so
that it should from the first have contained the notion of choosing, but beinj
applied to strages, and its sense getting blurred, it had to be helped out by a
second verb of the same meaning. Our Tit. 105, 4 has a striking juxtaposition
Sigun diu sigehaft uf dem wal, da man welt magede kiusche und ir siieze . I
can
is only in Dietr. 91 b and Rab. 536. 635. 811. 850. 923 that welrecke occurs ;
it have any relationship to walkiire ?
2 OSinn has Frigg, the valkyr-jur and the ravens in the waggon with him
Sn. 66. For valkyrja I also find the name skorAngr, derivable either from skai
stiperbia, or skari agmen. Brynhildr is called in Vols. saga cap. 24 mest
akor&ngr (see Suppl. j.