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shieldmaiden

noun

Etymology

From shield + maiden. Calque from Old Norse skjaldmær (“shieldmaiden”).

  1. derived from *magaþs✻
  2. derived from *magaþ✻
  3. inherited from mæġden — “girl”
  4. inherited from mayden
  5. compounded as shieldmaiden — “shield + maiden”

Definitions

  1. A female virgin who had chosen to fight as a warrior in battle.

    • The shield-maiden (skölde-mö) was dedicated to Odin, and forbidden to wed; her love brought calamity.
    • The Anglosaxon belief in the Shieldmaidens comes to us indeed in a darkened form, yet we can hardly doubt that it survived.
    • Störkud rushed through the ranks with a drawn sword and killed one after another; he cut down Hjört; whereupon Visma, shieldmaiden, who carried the standard of Harald, met him.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for shieldmaiden. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA