Valkyrie: Difference between revisions

From Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m (1 revision: Discworld import 2)
 
(→‎Annotation: On married Valkyries)
 
(One intermediate revision by one other user not shown)
Line 5: Line 5:
=== Annotation ===
=== Annotation ===


In {{wp|Wagner|Wagner's}} epic [[Opera|The Nibelungs Ring]] the voices for the nine valkyries is scored as four sopranos, four mezzo-sopranos and one contra-alto (plus a fifth soprano for Sieglinde, stretching any opera ensemble to its limits).
In {{wp|Wagner|Wagner's}} epic [[Opera|The Nibelungs Ring]] the voices for the nine valkyries are scored as four sopranos, four mezzo-sopranos and one contra-alto (plus a fifth soprano for Sieglinde, stretching any opera ensemble to its limits).
 
Norse saga does emphasise that Valkyries can have something approaching a "normal" off-duty life which can include marriage and motherhood (reference [[War]]'s marriage to a Valkyrie). Helgi Hundingsbana was a Valkyrie who took such a shine to one of her post-mortem passengers that she married him. The fact her spouse was technically dead did not prevent resultant children from making an appearance.
 
 


For more on why there have to be nine Valkyries and how that ''Hi-To-Yo!'' business fits into it, go here, where (second) Greatest Living Englishman Stephen Fry drops in on rehearsals for ''Die Valkure''....[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDIaH3RtYHw&playnext=1&list=PL93122969F6ED17B0&index=1] and meets some thoroughly modern Valkyries who don't do the matching saucepan lid bit, but rather favour some natty scarlet armour.
{{stub}}
[[Category:Supernatural entities]]
[[Category:Supernatural entities]]
[[de:Walküren]]
[[de:Walküren]]

Latest revision as of 08:54, 10 October 2016

Supernatural maidens (not necessarily young) dressed in barbarian warrior fashion, riding huge horses to take the souls of dead warriors to the big carousing hall in the sky. Valkyries are often mezzo-sopranos. One Valkyrie hit the big time (the analogy is the nurse who ends up married to a consultant) when she became Mrs War, and in good time the mother of Panic, Terror and Clancy. It is unclear as to whether or not Mrs War is still an active Valkyrie, although the presumption is that she helps out at busy times.

Another Valkyrie confronts a very young and nervous Susan Sto Helit when she has to take over from Death due to one of his fancies. On the battlefields of the Hublandish Vasung and Bergund tribes lay a lot of the slain, but the soul of one Volf Volfssonssonssonsson was left tied to his body until Susan worked out where he was and let the Valkyrie cart him off to the fabled Halls of the Slain.

Annotation

In Wagner's epic The Nibelungs Ring the voices for the nine valkyries are scored as four sopranos, four mezzo-sopranos and one contra-alto (plus a fifth soprano for Sieglinde, stretching any opera ensemble to its limits).

Norse saga does emphasise that Valkyries can have something approaching a "normal" off-duty life which can include marriage and motherhood (reference War's marriage to a Valkyrie). Helgi Hundingsbana was a Valkyrie who took such a shine to one of her post-mortem passengers that she married him. The fact her spouse was technically dead did not prevent resultant children from making an appearance.