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
Valkyries Riding into Battle (1838) by Johan Gustaf Sandberg (1782–1854).
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.
Valkyrie and a Dying Hero (circa 1877) by Hans Makart (1840-1884).
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.
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)
Takeoff 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[80] (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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