Also called Einheriar, the Lone Fighters, the Chosen Slain.
Their story
The einherjar are warriors slain in battle and chosen by Odin and the valkyries to live in Valhalla. Each day they arm and fight each other in the yard, and each evening those who fell rise again and they feast on the boar Sæhrímnir, which is cooked each night and whole again next day, and drink mead from Heiðrún. They are gathered to fight beside the gods at Ragnarök; eight hundred will march out of each of its five hundred and forty doors.
Best times to give to them
- Remembrance Day and similar memorials in modern practice
- Winter Nights
- at the grave of a soldier
What they like being given
- a toast to fallen soldiers
- a candle at a memorial
- bread and ale, or bread and apple juice
How to honour them
- In modern practice, raise a toast to service men and women who have died.
- Visit a war memorial and read the names aloud.
How they can help you
- honouring the fallen
- courage
- comradeship
Symbols
- Valhalla's roof of shields
- the boar Sæhrímnir
- the goat Heiðrún
- five hundred and forty doors
The sources also send half of the battle-slain to Freyja's field Fólkvangr.
Sources
- Poetic Edda, Grímnismál 8–23
- Poetic Edda, Vafþrúðnismál 41
- Prose Edda, Gylfaginning 38–41
More Norse spirits
- The Dísir Ancestral mothers and guardian women
- The Álfar The elves, bright and hidden folk
- The Landvættir The spirits of the land
- Jötnar The giants, elder powers of the wild
- The Daughters of Ægir and Rán The nine waves of the sea
- Dvergar The master smiths under stone
- The Sons of Ivaldi The dwarf smiths of Sif's hair and Skíðblaðnir
- Fylgja The follower spirit at your side