The Valkyrie, by Kate Heartfield: Book Review

This review of The Valkyrie appeared previously in the November 2024 issue of Historical Novels Review. This Norse retelling intrigued me.

Women’s Agency in The Valkyrie

Set in the closing period of the Western Roman Empire and Attila the Hun, Heartfield’s novel is a retelling of a Norse epic about the Valkyrie Brynhild and a Burgundian princess, Gudrun. As is true of many recent mythic retellings, the traditional tale is reconsidered through a feminist lens that grants or restores central roles, motives, and agency to the legendary women.

For example, in one handed-down version of Gudrun and Brynhild’s tale, they squabble over whose husband is braver, a seemingly trivial argument which nonetheless leads to the murder of Brynhild’s husband by Gudrun’s husband. Heartfield banishes such tawdry, passively depicted women and weaves from history and mythology a fallen Valkyrie seeking meaning through acts of justice—including killing a dragon—and a magically-endowed Gaulish princess who sacrifices her own happiness for the good of her people. These two women are flawed and make key mistakes but win the reader’s heart through their underlying motives.

Limited Gods

Odin, in contrast, is a selfish god, whose deceptions drive the world toward violence, while the two women protect a city and its people. In the face of destruction and loss, the novel suggests the only meaningful, sustaining constant is love.

The style of The Valkyrie

Excerpts from the novel’s opening paragraphs offer a taste of its tone and present this theme in Brynhild’s voice: “Like all stories, I have more than one beginning…my father gave me in tribute to his god: the one he called Wotan…I finished my training, took flight…as a Valkyrie, learned to gather the slain… The only beginning that matters came centuries later. My beginning was in you, Gudrun.”

The Valkyrie is an engaging, layered novel that will delight those who enjoy women-centered retellings of myths and history, as well as lovers of Norse traditions.

Finding a copy

If you want to purchase The Valkyrie, you can go here for Amazon.

Or you can find a copy at Bookshop.org.