shieldmaiden
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: shield-maiden and shield maiden
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From shield + maiden. Calque of Old Norse skjaldmær (“shieldmaiden”).
Noun[edit]
shieldmaiden (plural shieldmaidens)
- (Norse mythology) A female virgin who had chosen to fight as a warrior in battle.
- 1845 [1832–1836], Erik Gustaf Geijer, translated by J. H. Turner, The History of the Swedes, London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane, translation of Svenska folkets historia (in Swedish), page 33:
- The shield-maiden (skölde-mö) was dedicated to Odin, and forbidden to wed; her love brought calamity.
- 1849, John Mitchell Kemble, The Saxons in England:
- The Anglosaxon belief in the Shieldmaidens comes to us indeed in a darkened form, yet we can hardly doubt that it survived.
- 1890, Paul Belloni Du Chaillu, The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English-speaking Nations, volume 2:
- Störkud rushed through the ranks with a drawn sword and killed one after another; he cut down Hjört; whereupon Visma, shieldmaiden, who carried the standard of Harald, met him.
- 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, →ISBN, page 262:
- There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North!
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Norse female virgin who had chosen to fight in battle
|