A hall with roofs of shields, where there is fighting by day and feasting every evening – Odin’s gathering place for the last battle.
Valhalla (Old Norse Valhöll, ‘hall of the fallen’) is probably the most famous place in Norse mythology – Odin’s magnificent hall in Asgard.
The songs describe it overwhelmingly: the roof is covered with golden shields, the rafters are spears, and at its countless gates there is room for whole armies. An eagle hovers above it, the wolf keeps watch before it.
In Valhalla Odin gathers the einherjar – those who fell honourably in battle. The valkyries choose them on the battlefield and escort them to the hall. There they lead a hero’s life: by day they fight and fall, in the evening they rise unharmed to the feast, eat of the boar Sæhrímnir and drink the mead that flows from the udder of the goat Heiðrún.
Behind the image of feasting stands a sober thought: Odin is gathering his army for Ragnarök, the final battle. The fallen are not mere guests but an army he needs for the end of the world. So Valhalla mirrors the whole Norse attitude: even in the face of doom, courage and honour count.
Not all the dead, by the way, came to Valhalla – half were received by the goddess Freyja in her hall.