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The Valkyries and the Irish War-Goddesses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Charles Donahue*
Affiliation:
Fordham University

Extract

In an appendix to the first and most complete study of the Irish wargoddesses, C. Lottner called attention to their resemblance to the valkyries and pointed particularly to the following apparent similarities:

  1. (1) The valkyries, like the war-goddesses, appear alone or in groups of three.

  2. (2) Like the war-goddesses, they are often companions of single heroes.

  3. (3) Like the war-goddesses, they appear in the form of birds.

  4. (4) The Germanic cognate of Irish Bodb, a war-goddess, the Cathubodua of a continental inscription, appears in Baduhenna, the name of a Germanic goddess mentioned by Tacitus.

Lottner concluded that these similarities must have been caused by interchange of ideas between the Celts and Germanic peoples on the Continent.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1941

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