Einherjar

Einherjar (Old Norse, singular einheri, “those who fight alone” or “those who stand alone”) are the company of warriors who dwell in Valhöll after dying in battle. They are not passive dead: Gylfaginning ch. 20 describes their daily regimen — they arm each morning, ride out to the training plain of Vígríðr, and fight each other with full violence until midday. At the sound of a horn, the wounds close, the dead rise, and the company returns to Valhöll to eat and drink until dawn.

Selection and purpose

The valkyries (valkyrjur) make the selection on the battlefield: of those who die, some are chosen for Odin’s hall and some are not. The criterion, as Völuspá and the skaldic tradition make clear, is not simply courage but Odin’s will — he gathers whom he needs. The purpose is explicit in the Prose Edda: these warriors are being assembled, trained, and kept ready for the day when Fenrir breaks his chain and Ragnarök begins. Odin knows the final battle is coming; the einherjar are his answer.

The feasting

Grímnismál stanzas 36–37 complete the picture. The einherjar eat the flesh of the boar Sæhrímnir — cooked each evening by the cook Andhrímnir in the cauldron Eldhrímnir, and whole again each morning. The valkyries — Hrist and Mist, Skögul and Göndul — serve the mead that flows from the udder of the goat Heiðrún as she grazes on the leaves of Yggdrasil. The feast is not leisure but maintenance: the army must be kept strong.

The einherjar in memory

Skaldic poetry made the einherjar into the highest warrior honor. Kings who died in battle were commemorated as joining the einherjar — the Hákonarmál imagines this reunion in direct terms, Odin bidding Hákon welcome while acknowledging that the world is worse for losing him.