Valkyrie (pronounced val-keer-ee, val-kahy-ree, vahl-kerr-ee or val-kuh-ree)
(1) Any of the twelve beautiful war-maidens
attendant upon Odin who rode over battlefields, gathering the souls of slain
warriors chosen by Odin or Tyr and taking them to Valhalla, there to wait upon them.
(2) Code name for the civil-military conspiracy against the Nazi German government, culminating in the attempt coup d'état of 20 July 1944 during which an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).
(3) A frequently used name for high performance machinery (eg Aston Martin Valkyrie, North American XB70 Valkyrie).
1768: From the Old Norse valkyrja (literally "chooser of the slain") and cognate with the Old English wælcyrie (witch). The construct was valr (those who fell battle, slaughter (and cognate with Old English wæl)) + kyrja (chooser (and cognate with Old English cyrie)). Kyrja was from the ablaut root of kjosa (to choose), from the Proto-Germanic keusan, from the primitive Indo-European root geus- (to taste; to choose). The Old English form wælcyrie, strangely was less prevalent in Anglo-Saxon tales than in Scandinavian myths although linguistic anthropologists have suggested this may be a consequence of the better preservation of old texts. Köri was an alternative Norse form of kyrjam, from the ablaut root of kjosa, from the Proto-Germanic keusan, the earlier form of which was geus (to taste; to choose) from which English ultimately gained gusto. Richard Wagner's (1813–1883) modern German Walküre was directly from the Norse while the word was first noted in English as a proper noun (valkyries) in the 1770s and as a common noun (valkyries) since the 1880s. Valkyrie is a noun & valkyrian is an adjective; the noun plural is valkyries.
Rides of some Valkries
The Valkyries now
get quite good press but in heathen times they were thought rather more
sinister. The literal translation of their
name (choosers of the slain), referred to them choosing who gains admittance to
Valhalla, the Norse resting place of fallen warriors, but in some tellings of the myth they decided also who
died in battle and used their malicious magic to ensure their preferences were brought
to fruition. The tales of them writing
their ledger of death are recounted in Edda,
(an Old Norse term that refers to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic
literary works: the Prose Edda and an
older collection of poems now known as the Poetic Edda. Assembled in Ireland during
the thirteenth century and written in Icelandic, they comprise material reaching
back to the Vikings and are the main sources of medieval skaldic tradition in
Iceland and Norse mythology), their most gruesome side illustrated vividly in
the Darraðarljóð, a poem contained within Njal’s Saga. In the saga are depicted a dozen Valkyries prior
to the Battle of Clontarf, sitting at a loom and weaving the tragic fate of the
warriors using intestines for their thread, severed heads for weights, and
swords and arrows for beaters, all the while chanting their intentions with
ominous delight. That might delight some radical feminists but part of the myths is also that having carried the fallen to Valhalla, there the twelve beauties waited upon them hand and foot, attending to their every whim. Readers have always been able to take from mythology what they will. The artists of the nineteenth century however were always evocatively romantic when depicting the Valkyries, perhaps recalling the Nietzschean visions in the thirteenth century Norse Saga of the Volsungs in which beholding
a Valkyrie is compared with staring into a flame.
The imagery
exists also in the folklore of other Germanic peoples. In the Anglo-Saxon tradition, the valkyries (wælcyrie in the Old English) were female
spirits of carnage and the Celts, with whom the Norse and other Germanic
peoples associated for centuries, had in their mythology similar beings such as
the war goddesses Badb and the Morrígan. Whether in their loving or bloodthirsty
modalities, the valkyries are part of the complex of shamanism that permeates
pre-Christian Germanic religion. Much like the ravens Hugin and Munin, they’re
projections of parts of Odin, semi-distinct entities part of his larger being.
Hitler’s other Valkyrie
Unity
Valkyrie Mitford (1914–1948) was one six daughters of a right-wing father from
the English aristocracy, five of whom, had they lived in the modern era would
have been among the most prolific on social media and staples of celebrity gossip
sites; they were “content providers” and “click bait” before their time. Diana (1910–2003) became the wife of Sir Oswald
Mosley (1896–1980), founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists and the
mother of Max Mosley (1940–2021; president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) 1993-2009); on the
day she died she was the last person alive to have known both Adolf Hitler
(1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head
of state 1934-1945) and Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister
1940-1945 & 1951-1955). Jessica
(1917-1996) became a communist, Nancy (1904-1973 an author of note and Deborah
(1920–2014) ended her life as Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. Only Pamela (1907-1994) enjoyed what might be
thought a “normal” rural life. The only
brother (Tom, 1909-1945) was killed while on active service with the British
Army in Burma, one of several theatres in which he fought, declining to take up
arms against Nazi Germany, his choice of deployment the sort of indulgence the establishment
were extended.
Unity became besotted with admiration for Hitler and although various theories have been offered to account for the attraction which seems to date from her attendance at the 1933 Nuremburg Rally, there’s no doubt about her methods. While the legend was that after taking up residence in Munich in 1934, she stalked him, making her presence known at the restaurants & cafés where he was a habitué until she gained an invitation to his table, she was a socialite who knew how the system worked and actually gained a meeting by more traditional “networking”. Hitler was intrigued, not only by her obvious personal (the depth of her political knowledge is contested) devotion but also her family’s historic connections with notable figures of importance in German culture including the composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) and the proto-Nazi author Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927). Telling one confidant that being next to Hitler was “like sitting next to the sun”, she became part of the court circle which surrounded Hitler where the Wagnerian touch of her middle name gained her the nickname “the Valkyrie” and some historians have speculated the second (and rather-half-hearted) of Eva Braun’s (1912–1945) two suicide attempts during the 1930s was at least partially motivated by her jealousy of Unity.
Perhaps
already mentally unstable, Unity was distraught at the thought of Britain and
Germany being at war and on 3 September 1939 (the day the British declaration
of war was delivered), shot herself in the head. She joined the surprisingly long list of
those who survived such an act although, badly injured, she was never again the same; repatriated to the UK via Switzerland, she died in 1948 from
complications related to the bullet which remained lodged in her brain. Even in the 1940s conspiracy theories were a
thing and there were several about the already strange tale of Unity Mitford,
something encouraged by veil of secrecy her family draped around her. The most bizarre was that shortly after
returning to England she was admitted to a private maternity hospital in Oxford
where she gave birth to Hitler’s child.
The origin of the claim was said to have been the sister of the hospital’s
former manager who passed it on to her daughter, the niece revealing it some
years later. Unfortunately, it appears the hospital “neglected to register” babies born during the war, something quite unusual and
another element onto which the conspiracy theorists latched. Historians have dismissed the possibility
Hitler had a child.
North American XB-70 Valkyrie Specifications
Length: 189 ft 0 in (57.6 m)
Wingspan: 105 ft 0 in (32 m)
Height: 30 ft 0 in (9.1 m)
Wing area: 6,297 ft2 (585 m2)
Airfoil: Hexagonal; 0.30 Hex modified
root, 0.70 Hex modified tip
Empty weight: 253,600 lb (115,030 kg; operating empty
weight)
Loaded weight: 534,700 lb (242,500 kg)
Take-off weight: 542,000 lb (246,000 kg)
Fuel capacity: 300,000 pounds (140,000 kg) or 46,745 US
gallons (177,000 L)
Powerplant: 6 × General Electric YJ93-GE-3
afterburning turbojets
Dry thrust: 19,900 lbf (84 kN) each
With afterburner: 28,800 lbf (128 kN) each
North American XB-70 Valkyrie Performance
Maximum speed: Mach 3.1 (2,056 mph (3,309 km/h))
Cruise speed: Mach 3.0 (2,000 mph (3,200 km/h))
Range: 3,725 nautical miles (4,288 mi (6,901 km))
on combat mission
Service ceiling: 77,350 ft (23,600 m)
Wing loading: 84.93 lb/ft2 (414.7 kg/m2)
Lift-to-drag: About 6 at Mach 2[116]
Thrust/weight: 0.314
End of an era: The Aston Martin Valkyrie
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