The Valkyries

The Valkyries were an order of female warrior-spirits in the service of Odin, charged with choosing half of the warriors slain in battle and carrying them to Valhalla, where the chosen dead became the Einherjar and fought and feasted until the day of Ragnarok. For ages they were beings of spirit, never meant to hold a single physical shape, but a curse laid by the All-Father bound nine of them in flesh and drove them toward madness. Kratos and Atreus freed those nine from their corrupted forms, and the Vanir goddess Freya later restored them as the Shield Maidens.

Duty and nature#

The Valkyries existed to serve Odin as choosers of the slain. When warriors fell in battle, the Valkyries selected those worthy of Valhalla and carried their souls to that hall, where the chosen joined the ranks of the Einherjar. There the dead warriors trained and feasted, awaiting the day of Ragnarok when they would fight at the All-Father's side. By their nature the Valkyries were spirits rather than creatures of flesh, and holding a single physical form for any length of time was unnatural to them.

The Valkyries also guarded the proper passage of the dead. So long as they carried out their duty, souls reached their rightful destinations and the realm of the dead did not overflow. A warrior who declined the call of a Valkyrie and chose instead to fight her was punished severely: the intensity of the battle would burn the warrior away, condemning them to wander Midgard forever as a Draugr.

Odin's curse#

The order's fall began when Freya, once their queen, lost her standing with Odin. Out of spite at her downfall, the All-Father cursed nine of the Valkyries, binding them within corporeal bodies. The queen Sigrun later recalled that no matter what the Valkyries did, it was never enough for Odin. The curse forced them to remain in flesh, the very state most unnatural to their kind, and prolonged confinement in that form steadily drove each of them to insanity.

As the cursed Valkyries grew more dangerous, the queen Sigrun was left with a grim choice. To keep their madness from causing needless destruction across the realms, she sealed her sisters away one by one in hidden prisons scattered through the Nine Realms. The cost of this was severe. With the Valkyries imprisoned, no one remained to escort the warrior dead to Valhalla. The dead piled up in Helheim until that realm could no longer hold them, and the overflow gave rise to the Hel-Walkers that began to appear in Midgard.

Freed by Kratos and Atreus#

In time the prisons of the cursed Valkyries were found by Kratos and Atreus. The first Valkyrie they overcame begged them to free her sisters from the curse as well. To free a Valkyrie, the two had to destroy her maddened physical form, which released her trapped spirit. Each freed Valkyrie thanked the Spartan and his son with her eternal gratitude before her spirit passed on to rejoin her sisters, and each left a vestige of herself within her helmet.

When all of the imprisoned Valkyries had been freed, their helmets could be gathered and placed upon the thrones of the Council of Valkyries on the north side of the Lake of Nine. This summoned the Valkyrie Queen, Sigrun, the strongest fighter the order had known in living memory. Kratos and Atreus fought and defeated her in turn, and with that the curse upon the original nine was undone.

Rebirth as the Shield Maidens#

During Ragnarok, Freya used Vanir magic to bring the original nine Valkyries back in better bodies, ones in which they kept their own minds and selves rather than slipping into madness. The change was visible in their forms: where Odin's magic had given them cold metallic wings, the reborn Valkyries bore more organic, birdlike wings and carried improved armor. Now called the Shield Maidens, they joined Kratos' army for the final assault on Asgard.

Not all of the order had been cursed. Three Valkyries, Hrist, Mist, and a new queen named Gna, had remained loyal to Odin by choice and so were spared the curse. During Ragnarok, Hrist and Mist twice clashed with Kratos and Atreus and were both killed, while Gna led the Asgardian forces against the Shield Maidens. In the fighting Gna slew the Shield Maiden Olrun by tearing her wings from her body. After Asgard's fall Gna sought vengeance, but Kratos and Freya confronted her in Muspelheim and defeated her. Freya offered mercy, and when Gna refused it, Freya beheaded her, ending the Valkyries as a group. Of the Shield Maidens who fought at Ragnarok, only Sigrun, Eir, and Gunnr were said to have survived.