Talk:Valhalla

	Valhalla has been listed as one of the Philosophy and religion good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones Date Process Result September 17, 2008 Good article nominee Listed
	A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on September 11, 2008. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that in Norse mythology, Valhalla is an enormous hall located in Asgard where those that die in combat go upon death?

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Why are all the pictures of Walhalla, that is an entirely different temple? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.155.1.218 (talk) 17:59, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong answer 2409:408C:1E41:B9EF:0:0:304A:9914 (talk) 09:18, 13 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"With 500 hundred doors" --so is that an unintended redundancy, or the way the mythology is presented in translation? (In other words, 50,000 doors or 500?

er, I see what you mean... Too early in the morning... I'll fix it... sjc

800 doors is the right —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.59.22.46 (talk) 00:57, 19 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's five hundred doors. OKelly (talk) 03:14, 23 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Where does Loki fit into all of this. The fact that he is still alive after Thor 2 and he has taken Odin's place on the throne, clearly shows that Loki is now the supreme ruler of Asgard. Therefore he is the righteous ruler of Valhalla. Complimenting this issue is the fact that Odin did not truly die. Please fix this monstrous issue! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Albert11317 (talk • contribs) 18:59, 12 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm wondering about the entry from Valhall the band on this page. It seems that this is an entirely different word and should be moved onto its own page. However, my knowledge of Norweigan grammar is non-existant, so it may be that it deserves to be here. Does anyone else have an opinion one way or the other? -- Darkhorse 23:51, 2003 Nov 12 (UTC)

I would like to organize the articles that deal with an otherworld as a real existence. I propose that Afterlife would be the best hub for such articles. Eschatology and Underworld are other possibilities, but I don't think they work as well as Afterlife. Any thoughts on such a project? Please come to Talk:Afterlife to discuss. Tom (hawstom) 14:48, 6 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

A new proposal on representation of Norse mythology names is now up for a vote. - Haukur Þorgeirsson 00:51, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

"Here, every day, the slain warriors who will assist Odin in Ragnarök, the gods' final conflict with the giants, arm themselves for battle, and ride forth by the thousands to engage in mock combat on the plains of Asgard."

I am not sure that's entirely accurate. The slain warriors engage in mortal combat as opposed to "mock combat" as is written in the Anglish article. Everyday they ride to battle and die a hero's death only to be resurrected the next day and continue the cycle. I don't exactly have a source for this (which actually brings up another point: where are the sources for the mythology articles?), but on the Russian wiki article that is what it says and that's what I heard previously also while doing research for this topic. Can anyone back this up so that I can go ahead and edit this? Thanks :)

LaPalida 02:07, 25 April 2006 (GMT -5:00)

My recollection is the same as yours. I don't have a citation, but neither did whoever wrote the current passage. I say go ahead and edit (though if you can find a citation, that would be good). - Jmabel | Talk 04:07, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Every day, as soon as they are clothed, they straightway put on their armor and go out into the court and fight, and fell each other. That is their sport; and when the time draws near to undern-meal, they ride home to Valhall and sit down to drink, even as is said here:

All the Einherjar | in Odin's court

Deal out blows every day;

The slain they choose | and ride from the strife,

Sit later in love together."

Gylfaginning, Brodeur's translation. [1] Haukur 10:49, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Since Bifrost (the Rainbow Bridge) connected Midgard and Asgard, would the fallen dead have to cross this bridge on the way to Valhalla? I can find nothing saying that the warriors would cross this path but only information that the god Heimdall would guard this bridge against the possibility of Giants attacking Asgard. It is my assumption that the Valkyries would aid the slain heros accross the bridge and make sure they were not mistaken for polymorphed giants, but I could be wrong. Was there another way to Valhalla? Can anybody shed light on this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Valhalla64 (talk • contribs) 6 July 2006.

I would like to know if there`s any symbol of einherjar like the Triple Horn of Odin is a stylized emblem of Odin? If there is such sign could you show me? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.131.12.62 (talk) 15:56, 25 February 2007 (UTC).[reply]

On the Valkyrie page, it explains that 'Val' is 'to choose' and Kyrie comes from what was 'the slain'.. now if that is true...then would Valhalla, or Valholl etc. technically translate into 'The Hall of the Chosen' instead of the 'Hall of the Slain' ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.4.72.141 (talk • contribs) 01:12, 7 March 2007

The Valkyrie page has been corrected, "Val" does indeed mean "the slain". I have updated this article accordingly. --Boesvig (talk) 03:41, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There was some absurdly long thing about a Neopets Valhalla tacked onto the end of this article. I removed it. I recommend that, if that stuff's going to be put in Wikipedia at all, it be put in the Neopets article and not here, especially if it's going to be that long. That or stick it as a separate article in the disambiguation page. Cwilli201 05:30, 15 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

aren't posting lyrics to a song against wikipedia policy? i've seen them removed before due to copyright issues or something along those lines. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.81.92.220 (talk) 04:45, 31 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

why does this article don't have a category????--190.86.120.45 (talk) 17:22, 26 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LED ZEPPLIN IS AMAZING POST THE LYRICS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.54.117.104 (talk) 20:43, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This article is solid up top, then becomes atrocious! Why are the pop culture references taking up three-fourths of the page? I went ahead and trimmed out about a third of the references, removing mere names ("this guy said Valhalla in a TV show with no context to it") and repeated references while leaving in real purposeful references to it... 209.184.165.20 (talk) 21:00, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

From where does this information "átta hundruð" here indicates a "big hundred" - 120 - which would mean 960 and not 800" come from, please? This confusion between the two numbers is planet wide, internet articles and both academically checked encyclopedias showing both numbers. As a person familiar with Scandinavian languages, I can say that "átta hundruð" (åtta hundra) means literally eight-hundred (and nothing else in modern Scandinavian languages). Supposing, if that meant 120, instead of 100, how did they then say 100? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.22.247.220 (talk) 07:55, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This is per the source I'm working with, which I've provided: Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). The Poetic Edda. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 0192839462. Pages 55 and 270. :bloodofox: (talk) 08:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Haha, wow, yeah, she just flatly states "this is the so-called 'long hundred' = 120". And how, pray tell, does she know that? This reminds me of the "no heathen personification of summer, nosiree!" we discussed yesterday. Anyway, it's unclear whether Larrington's footnote applies just to "eight hundred" or also to "five hundred". Personally I think it's much more likely that we have the small hundred here because then the number matches up with a number from the ancient mythology of other peoples. Simek touches on this in his Valhalla entry. Haukur (talk) 08:43, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just check Hellquist's etymological dictionary on the matter[2]. He says that the word simply referred to 100, 120 or just "an indeterminate number of people". Consequently átta hundruð could simply have meant "eight large groups". --Berig (talk) 15:30, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Changing the sentence to "8 long hundreds" (piped to directly to Hundred (word)) would nicely solve the problem, though the Hundred (word) article itself obviously needs work. :bloodofox: (talk) 05:43, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have no objections to that. Good that you brought it to the talk, IP-man, that was what I wanted ;) –Holt T•C 14:41, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This review is transcluded from Talk:Valhalla/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

   The first sentence is too long—please enforce onto the sentence a mayhem of pain as your cutting edge slices it into two entities mere dwarfs of the former giant. In section Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, in the first paragraph under the quote, you should use emdash (—) instead of a hyphen (-), when using a vertical line as punctuation. While we mention the matter, the page listings in references are supposed to have an endash (–) (more info at WP:DASH. In the sentence "Helgi awakens, stating that he must and "ride along..." I believe the "and" is not nessesary.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

   Are there no theories concerning Valhalla?

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   Placing on hold until the issues have been resolved. Otherwise a very well written article. Arsenikk ^(talk) 16:38, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the review! I believe I've fixed your the problems you've pointed out. You are welcome to fix these dash issues on sight, as it would save us a step. I have yet to encounter any particularly notable theories, though there are similarities to both Heorot and the Temple at Uppsala, which I've linked to in the "see also" section for now. :bloodofox: (talk) 04:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Then the article is passed as a Good Article. Congratulations! Arsenikk ^(talk) 11:50, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wonderful, thanks again! :bloodofox: (talk) 17:22, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The caption of Image:Walhalla (1896) by Max Brückner.jpg is Walhalla. Is Valhalla also known as Walhalla? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 09:57, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I got my answer from Bloodofox. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 10:01, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For anyone else who may be wondering, in German w has the value of v and v has the value of f. Therefore one encounters "Walhalla" rather than "Valhalla" (as Valhalla would be pronounced something like Falhalla in German) and "Walküre" rather than "Valkyrie" (as this would result in Falkyrie). :bloodofox: (talk) 10:30, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, German accepts loan-words with 'v' in them, logical spelling or not (de:Videotechnik) but in this case the German 'w' is the letter etymologically corresponding to the Norse 'v', I bet that has something to do with it. In fact, it would not be illogical for English to spell loan-words from Norse with a 'w' and sometimes you do see words like wiking in (older) English texts. The Old Norse initial 'v' was certainly pronounced more like English 'w' than English 'v'. Haukur (talk) 10:46, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Should the Halo 3 map of the same name be referenced under modern influence? --Big picture (talk) 00:05, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ask yourself this question: how notable is a user map appearing in a video game? Should we mention a joke referencing Valhalla that appeared on a bubble gum wrapper in 1973? Think about the big picture. :bloodofox: (talk) 01:44, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's a perfectly valid question, just because it's new media it shouldn't be discounted out of hand. Valhalla is one of the most popular maps on one of the biggests games of this generation. There ought to be at least a passing referene under modern influence as Norse mythology obviously influenced the developers of the game.--90.219.15.110 (talk) 09:43, 6 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If we were to add everything that bore the name Valhalla, we'd end up with a long and detailed list of non-notable trivia. See point 6 of WP:NOTDIR. What we want is a short summary of important appearances of the concept Valhalla in modern culture, which means that very much has to be excluded. –Holt (T•C) 22:50, 7 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Valhalla map on Halo has nothing to do with the Norse Valhalla. OKelly (talk) 03:17, 23 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

walhalla isn't the correct name. it is simple -walhall- which means -hall of the fallen-. at the german wiki it is better explained —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.234.168.234 (talk • contribs) 22:36, March 24, 2009 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, Valhöll would be the correct name, as that is the original Old Norse name. In English the name is generally anglicized as Valhalla and Walhalla, while in German you most oftenly see Walhall. Adding the -a does by no means imply that it is Valaskjálf we are speaking about. –Holt (T•C) 13:41, 25 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If Valhöll is a composite word made from Valir which means 'slain, slaughtered' and höll which is 'palace, hall', I think this should be mentioned in the article. Bigshotnews 04:36, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Valhöll is Icelandic not Old Norse! Valhǫll is the correct one as this yields Swedish (and Norwegian and (?)Danish) Valhall and Icelandic Valhöll. If you want the really old unassimilated one it's ValhǫlR. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Servus Triviae (talk • contribs) 00:01, 1 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To be clear, we're forced to render the o-ogonek as an o-umlaut for technical reasons: many devices do not currently display the o-ogonek. :bloodofox: (talk) 22:57, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It clearly from Valahala's legend as it is a SF version of Valahala. IMO could be added to modern influence. 210.245.184.21 (talk) 03:34, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a nebula of tiny pop culture references to Valhalla out there, and this is simply one of them. References this small do not need merit mention here until we can cite a solid source that goes in depth on the subject of modern pop cultural references to Valhalla (which may well eventually appear). :bloodofox: (talk) 14:25, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't warrant being mentioned in Modern Influence — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.70.229.196 (talk) 18:32, 15 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Back in December, someone inserted ([3]) a reference into the introduction to an article authored by Kathleen M. Self and published in 2014 in Feminist Formations ([4]). It contains statements like "One mythological text encapsulates this by saying that men who die in battle and women who die in childbirth are rewarded with an afterlife in Valhöll, the residence of the honored dead, located in Asgard, the gods’ realm." In fact, there is no such attestation. Beyond that, this article is well into WP:FRINGE territory and should be removed when added per WP:UNDUE. :bloodofox: (talk) 22:32, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, Sorry for the confusion. I considered the Kathleen Self claim a reliable enough source since she's an associate professor in Religious Studies at St. Lawrence University with a background in Norse mythology and gender studies, and the claim was in a peer reviewed journal. I did not realise it would fall into WP:FRINGE territory, simply due to my lack of experience in the field.

I'm confused by your statement that there is no such attestation that follows the quote. Do you mean that Self fails to name the text she's referring to, or have I misread her claim to mean something other than intended? Taylorderek (talk) 20:10, 28 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Self appears to pull the claim I cite above ("women who die in childbirth") out of thin air. And that's just one example. The article is extremely out-there WP:FRINGE. :bloodofox: (talk)

I noticed that there seems to be a modern pop culture resurgence regarding references to Valhalla among white supremacists and believe it deserves its own section in this article. It is clearly documented. Here are three references. I will wait to let consensus develop to see how this might best fit into the article.

^{[1] [2] [3]}

2600:1700:7A51:10B0:9860:D11C:FB5C:E401 (talk) 05:45, 24 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Valhalla has historically received mention in just about every type of media throughout 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This isn’t anything new, nor is it anything special from a historical perspective. :bloodofox: (talk)

Okay. I suppose the idea that there is a resurgence isn't well founded or cited in the articles and I do apologize for that. However, there does seem to be a link between it and white supremacists and that remains documented and cited with good references. Can an inclusion be made regarding white supremacist ties to Valhalla on the article? The only reason I know about Valhalla is because of white supremacists. I've never read or heard of any person of color saying, "see you in Valhalla" but there are documented instances of white supremacists' connection to it and that statement. 2600:1700:7A51:10B0:B1ED:B440:CA68:E8D9 (talk) 16:21, 24 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

References to Valhalla in pop culture are not difficult to find. For example, you may have heard of a little movie called Thor (Thor (film)), and its various sequels. These films were wildly successful both in the United States and throughout the world, and they frequently mention Valhalla. That's one example of many. :bloodofox: (talk) 19:43, 24 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. Perhaps make an inclusion about the movie Thor using it if it is something you can cite. I wouldn't contest that. I have provided a cited reference for the Christchurch Mosque Shooter using the Cross of Odin and the word Valhalla in his rampage. I cannot understand why you are trying to diminish the connection. What is your problem with including information about Norse Mythology's connection to white supremacy? Maybe I should just include a link to Valhalla on the white supremacy article? 2600:1700:7A51:10B0:899E:2798:D5E8:1F91 (talk) 14:10, 26 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

OH the irony of whitewashing the Valhalla article so that there is no reference to white supremacy... Sure wikieditors. You just keep doing you.119.252.119.84 (talk) 11:47, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm confused about why people say "ValR" means the plural of the battlefield slain. Ending with the R without a vowel is the typical singular masculine noun in old norse. It is not a plural form, as far as I know.

So I assume it would be:

Val = battlefield. This word is still used poetically in Danish.

ValR = dead guy on the battlefield. Singular masculine noun ending. Similar structure as in modern English, where "a fight" is a noun, and "a fighter" is a guy who participates in a fight.

Valar = dead guys on the battlefield. Standard plural masculine form.

So it should be "Valarhalla" if it meant "Hall of battlefield slain"

I think it actually means "Battlefield Hall"

The difference is of course mostly academic.

77.233.228.141 (talk) 14:00, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The band Blind Guardian has a song called Valhalla ZForce37 (talk) 14:41, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

They do, and it's listed at the disambiguation page at Valhalla (disambiguation)#Music. Not every thing named Valhalla should be listed, but rather things that can show they are relevant to this article's subject and not just warranting mention on the disambiguation page. - Aoidh (talk) 15:21, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]