Entering My Valkyrie Era #20

Track 2 of Sovereignty Week on Hedda’s Mix Tape.

We chose our word of the year: Sovereignty.

Here is mine in action.

I am entering my Valkyrie era.

No more waiting to be rescued.
No more softening the truth, so injustice goes down easier.
No more pretending attacks on women’s rights and democracy are background noise.

I am done being polite about erosion.

I am here to fight.

In Norse mythology, Valkyries were not decorative figures. They were decisive. They chose who lived and who fell in battle. They rode into the chaos, carried the worthy forward, and answered to no one but their own authority.

And then history flattened them.

Turned them into opera caricatures. Horned helmets. Comic relief. A sexist punchline where there should have been reverence.

But distortion does not erase truth.

Brynhildr defied the gods rather than betray her sense of justice.
Sigrún, whose name means “Victory Rune,” fought beside the people she loved and refused to yield.

They were not passive.
They were not ornamental.

They were sovereign.

Much of their story was buried. Rewritten. Diluted. Swallowed by religions. Recorded centuries later through someone else’s lens.

What survived is fragmentary.

But fragments are enough.

Because reclamation is power.

When we restore these stories, we restore ourselves. We remember that women have always been arbiters of destiny, not spectators.

And this feels like that season.

Fight for women’s autonomy.
Fight for safety.
Fight for the right to exist without being legislated into submission.
Fight for a democracy that does not collapse under apathy, disinformation, and power hoarded behind closed doors.

This is not about outrage.

It is about authority.

It is about drawing a line and meaning it.

So consider this a declaration.

I am calling forward the fiercest parts of myself.
The discerning parts.
The unflinching parts.

The parts that do not ask permission.

I will stand guard over what matters.

I will not shrink from making others comfortable.
I will not outsource my voice.

No obeying in advance.

Because we deserve a world where our rights are not negotiable. Where our voices are not optional. Where our futures are not decided by people who mistake control for leadership.

If you feel the pull of your own Valkyrie moment, start here.

Reclaim your story.
No one else gets authorship.

Speak, even when your hands shake.

Your voice is both a weapon and a compass.

Study the women they tried to erase.

You are part of a lineage.

Build your armor.

Ritual.
Boundaries.
Discipline.

Protect what matters.

Without apology.
Without hesitation.

We are not background characters.

We are choosing.

And we are done pretending otherwise.

Protect your queendom.
Press play.

Sample Track

“The Valkyries are not passive figures. They intervene in the fate of battles and shape the destinies of heroes.” — Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World

Track Notes

Archetypes survive because they carry cultural memory. The Valkyrie reminds us that women have long been imagined not only as caretakers but as arbiters of fate. Reclaiming these stories is one way we reclaim authority over our own.

Liner Notes

I should say something clearly here.

I am not a historian or a Norse scholar. I am a reader, a writer, and someone who is curious about how stories travel through time and shape how we understand power, identity, and possibility.

Part of the joy of writing Hedda’s Mix Tape is following threads of culture and history and sharing the voices of people who have studied these ideas deeply.

If the Valkyrie archetype intrigues you, these are some of the books and scholars whose work helped me think about these stories more seriously.

Consider this the liner notes section of the mix tape.

References and research

Scholars often point out that Valkyries function as “choosers of the slain.”

The Old Norse word valkyrja literally means:

chooser of the slain.

Which is a fascinating symbolic role:

Women deciding who lives, who dies, and who enters Valhalla.

That mythic authority is one reason Valkyries remain such a compelling archetype.

Liner Notes: Further Reading

Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
A modern scholarly exploration of Valkyries and powerful women in Old Norse literature, examining myth, history, and the representation of female authority in Viking-Age storytelling.

The Poetic Edda translated by Carolyne Larrington
One of the primary sources of Norse mythology contains the stories of Valkyries such as Brynhildr and Sigrún.

The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson
A 13th-century Icelandic compilation that preserved much of Norse mythology, including the Valkyries' role as choosers of the slain.

The Valkyrie’s Gender by Kathleen M. Self
An academic paper exploring how Valkyries and shield-maidens disrupt traditional gender roles in Norse texts.

In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet (I am obsessed with this book)
A feminist cultural analysis examining how women who defied social norms were historically labeled dangerous.

The Seed of Yggdrasil by Maria Kvilhaug
An interpretive exploration of Norse mythology and cosmology through a female-centered lens.

The Next Track

Next on Hedda’s Mix Tape:

Authority Is Moving Closer to the Source

Because power is shifting, and the distance between institutions and individuals is shrinking.

Press play tomorrow.