Page 13 - Demo

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie(from Old Norse valkyrja\ of the slain\many female figures who decide who will die in battle. The valkyries bring their chosen warriors to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin, where the deceased warriors become einherjar. There, when the einherjar are not preparing for the events of Ragnar%u00f6k, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of r o y a l t y , s o m e t i m e s accompanied by ravens, and sometimes connected to swans. I cast Eve in our garden in Oxford in the role of one of the Valkyries, flying on a dragon over the battle fields of Afghanistan , looking for brave dead warriors to take to Odin. The Dragon was rendered using Poser, a 3D virtual reality model rendering software package. The Valkyries theme has been at the centre of many pieces of art, music, and theatre. Probably, the romanticising of warriors lost in battle being %u2018chosen%u2019 for the cream warriors of Odin, helped the living cope with their loss. The idea of sacrifice of oneself in war for the good of a noble or higher spiritual purpose is still with us, and sadly%u2014steals the lives of young, easily impressed Muslims, who turn themselves into living bombs and human weapons in their idealism of Islam fighting western corruption. I see them as victims too. The Ride of the Valkyrs (the title given to the work in the list of illustrations on page vii). Date Published in 1909. Source Guerber, H. A. (H%u00e9l%u00e8ne Adeline) (1909). Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas. London : Harrap. This illustration facing page 176. Digitized by the Internet Archive and available from http://www.archive.org/details/mythsofthenorsem00gueruoft Some simple image processing by User: Haukurth.13