Valhöll (Valhalla)

8. Gladsheim the fifth is named, there the golden-bright Valhall stands spacious, there Hropt selects each day those men who die by weapons.

Grímnismál names Valhöll in Gladsheim, where Hroptr (a name of Odin) chooses each day those who die by weapons. Its roof is laid with spears, its hall is decked with shields and its benches are strewn with corslets; a wolf hangs before the western door and an eagle hovers over it. The poem says it has five hundred and forty doors.

Gylfaginning says the fallen heroes, the Einherjar, live there and are fed on the flesh of the boar Sæhrímnir, and that the valkyries serve them.

The name is Old Norse Valhǫll, built from valr, the slain, and hǫll. That second word first meant a rock or hill rather than a roofed hall, so the oldest sense may be closer to "rock of the slain". The English ending in -a is a later attempt to settle the word's grammatical gender. Both halves belong to old Germanic word families: valr is kin to Old English wæl, slaughter, and the same ancient root also gave Old Norse hel, another name for an afterlife place.

Scholars point out that Grímnismál can be read two ways: as a hall for the dead, or as a stylised battlefield with broken weapons and ghosts. Snorri and the Heimskringla also present Odin as a historical king, and horses, not ships, are the usual way to reach the place.