Hildr

Hildr, called the Mistress of Battle, was one of the nine Valkyries cursed by Odin to remain in a corporeal form until madness took her. After she grew too dangerous, she was sealed away by the Valkyrie Queen in Niflheim. She was freed from her corruption by Kratos and Atreus, and was later reborn by Freya as one of the Shield Maidens.

Curse and imprisonment#

Hildr was one of the nine Valkyries bound into corporeal bodies by the curse of Odin, an unnatural state that slowly drove her toward madness. As her corruption grew too dangerous, the Valkyrie Queen Sigrun sealed her away within a prison set deep in the frozen, fog-choked maze of Niflheim. She wore a golden helmet shaped after a boar, and her corruption left her skin a sickly pale blue and gave her great mechanical wings of blue plated in golden metal. In battle she commanded ice, loosing shards and chunks of frost from a distance, and could send unblockable freezing blasts from her scythe.

Freedom and rebirth#

Kratos and Atreus reached her prison through the Niflheim maze and destroyed her physical form, freeing her trapped spirit. Released from the curse, she gave the two her eternal gratitude before her spirit vanished and rejoined her sisters. During Ragnarok she was among the Valkyries Freya reborn through Vanir magic in a pure new body, her skin restored and her metallic wings replaced with more organic, birdlike ones. As a Shield Maiden she joined her freed sisters in the assault on Asgard.

Legend and loyalties#

In legend Hildr was the Mistress of Battle, said by many to be conflict itself given form. She spent most of her time in Midgard, watching discord among the living and at times sowing it herself. Unlike her sisters, with whom she did not get along, Hildr was close to the All-Father, which made her fate a curious one. According to Mimir she was near to Odin and distant from the other Valkyries, yet she did not stand among the three who served him by choice and were spared the curse. Why she ended up cursed alongside the eight Valkyries who opposed Odin was never fully explained. One possibility held that she had in truth been spying for her discontented sisters, since she held a seat in the hidden Valkyrie council in Midgard whose number matched exactly those who opposed the All-Father.