Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary online

wæl-cyrge

  • noun [ feminine ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
wæl-cyrge, -cyrige, -cyrie, an; f.
A chooser of the slain. According to the mythology, as seen in its Northern form, the Val-kyrjur were the goddesses who chose the slain that were to be conducted by them to Odin's hall — Val-halla : 'Þær ríða jafnan at kjósa val.' Something of the old idea is still shewn in the following glosses, in which the word renders a Fury, a Gorgon, or the goddess of war
Show examples
  • Uualcyrge Tisifone, Wrt. Voc. ii. 122, 34:

    Eurynis,

      107, 43.
  • Walcrigge

    Herinis,

      110, 34.
  • Wælcyrge, 43, 2:

    Bellona,

      94, 15: 12, 12.
  • Wælcyrige

    Allecto,

      5, 72.
  • Wælcyrie

    Tisiphona,

    i.
      60, 21.
  • Ða deór habbaþ wælkyrian eágan

    hae bestie oculos habent Gorgoneos,

      Nar. 34, 6.
  • But elsewhere it is used apparently with the sense of

    witch or sorceress

    :-- Wyccan and wælcyrian and unlybwyrhtan,
      Wulfst. 298, 18.
  • Wiccan and wælcerian,

      165, 34.
  • Wiccean and wælcyrian,

      Chart. Erl. 231, 10.
Etymology
[Clerkes out of Caldye ... wycheȝ & walkyries ... deuinores of demorlaykes ... sorsers & exorsismus, Allit. Pms. 85, 1577. Icel. val-kyrja.]
Linked entries
v.  -cyrge.
Full form

Word-wheel

  • wæl-cyrge, n.