Valkyries are the Choosers of the Slain, the warrior-servants of Odin who descend upon battlefields to determine which heroes fall and which are gathered into Valhalla. The Old Norse valkyrja (plural valkyrjur) literally means "chooser of the slain" (from valr "the slain" + kjósa "to choose")—a title that underscores their primary function as arbiters of death and destiny in Germanic cosmology.

Position on the Tree of Life

This entry occupies Path 11, the Sephirah of Kether (1) on the Tree of Life. The Valkyries here correspond to the first emanation's dynamic, active aspect of will in its pure, unfiltered expression. As Kether is the Crown—the primal point of creation—the Valkyries in this position represent the raw, unmediated decree of fate. They embody the principle that choice and destiny are one: the Valkyries' selection is the reality of the warrior's death, just as Kether's will is the reality of all subsequent manifestation.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

The astrological attribution of Path 11 is the element of Air. The Valkyries, who ride through the air on horses (or, in later tradition, as swan-maidens) and whose cries were heard above the clamor of battle, are thoroughly consonant with this airy essence. Air represents intellect, communication, and the active principle of separation and discernment—the very act of choosing that defines the Valkyrie's function. It is the element through which the pure will of Kether begins to differentiate into form.

Historical Context

The Valkyries are first attested in Old Norse poetry of the 9th and 10th centuries, most prominently in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda. The Grímnismál stanza 23 describes them bearing ale to the einherjar in Valhalla, while the Völuspá (stanzas 30–31) lists them by name and places them at the cosmic battlefield where they control the outcome of war.

The Vǫlsunga saga and the Helgakviða poems further developed the Valkyrie figure as a mortal woman who takes on the role of a wish-maiden (Óskmey) and protector of a chosen hero. This is the origin of the “swan-maiden” Valkyrie, a liminal figure between human, divine, and animal. By the 13th century, Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda (Gylfaginning) systemized the Valkyries into a formal hierarchy: he names twelve (or, counting in some manuscripts, twenty-seven) including Göndul, Skögul, Hrist, and the well-known Brynhildr.

The Christianization of Scandinavia did not erase the Valkyries but transformed them. They were euhemerized as mortal shield-maidens, absorbed into folk belief as protective spirits, and later romanticized in the 19th-century Wagnerian cycle that cemented their image as armored, winged figures on horseback.

Place in Liber 777

In the table corresponding to "Some Scandinavian Gods" at Step 11, the Valkyries are the expression of the divine will set into motion. Here they are not merely attendants but active agents of cosmic order, functioning as the direct instrument of Odin’s—and Kether’s—choice. In this schema, the Valkyries represent the path by which the Crown's pure intention descends into the realm of human action, making them a fitting gate for the magician who seeks to understand the unity of will and fate.