Valkyries and shieldmaidens : Sex and gender in Old Norse mythology

Abstrakt This essay is about how I investigated the valkyries and shieldmaidens gender in Old Norse mythology. The starting point of investigating valkyries, from a gender perspective, lies within that "gender", socially, can be reconstructed from societies ideologies and norms, referring to present time discussions. Further, studies have shown different interpretations of the valkyries in mythology, as many researchers described valkyries as crossborder from the female gender category to the male gender category. In mentioning the valkyries as cross-border, between the social roles of being a man or a woman, the valkyrian is emphasized as one who acts outside the norm of their gender category. But, if the normality norms for the valkyries are the same, then there should be no boundary-crossing. And with this said,and to validate this research importance, my working hypothesis was that valkyries and shieldmaidens fits in to a third gender category, and that the investigation regarding a third gender is quite right considering how society has changed, especially since the third gender category has become a contemporary phenomenon. Therefore, to understand the myths, I first needed to familiarise myself with the properties, attributes and actions.Related to this, I, immersed myself within the mythology to better understand the stemmed creation of the myths. The study regarding valkyriesand shieldmaidens was examined, through an analysis, of the heroic poems within The poetic Edda.