Val-kÿr'ĭ-a

[Old Norse valkyrja, A-S. vâlcyrie, Ger. Walküren, Walkyren, or Walkyrien, from Old Norse vale, crowds of slain, and kiöra, kera, to select.] (Scandinavian Myth.) One of the maidens of Odin, an awful and beautiful being in a female form, who presided over battle and marked out those who were to be slain, and who also ministered at the feasts of heroes in Valhalla.

Odin’s maidens, the Valkyrias, were continually rushing through the ether, seeking, in all countries, the bravest heroes, whom they marked with their spear-point when the hour of death had come. Sinding.