Who would you recruit into the Einherjar?

[beachhead1973]

I didn't mean the pagan ones - most of them are much less violence than the "one percenters".

I'm thinking of outlaw bikers.  The type who enjoy fighting (basically over nothing).  Hell Angels, Outlaws, Bandidos - and their fellow riders.  Their love of fighting and their disregard of external authority are similar to how the Vikings lived.

Richard

good points, reminds us that not every Einherjar has to be a "good guy" he/she could as easily be a Stasi wetwork specialist, Einsatzgruppen or anything else on the sith-side of the scale.

[Silverblaze]

I was actually referring to the 1%'s as well. 

Many einherjar would likely not be remotely good or honorable people.

[ARedthorn]

Define honor.

The Vikings had a code of honor- and a pretty serious one- just one we wouldn't necessarily immediately grasp. More of a dedication/bravery/braggery(was actually a virtue for them) thing. A serious look at their gods will show that- Tyr was their god's king before Odin- only lost the position because he lost his hand... which he sacrificed to bind Fenris (which he didn't need to sacrifice if he'd been willing to renege on a bet).

As for being anti-external authority... that's at least a little shaky... they had a lot of respect for their kings, as long as their kings had respect for them. The Vikings would've hated modern culture, because the leaders of today (which the vikings would've seen as anyone with wealth) weren't taking care of their warriors or their people... so yeah- anti-current-external-authority, but not anarchists- not even vaguely.

Plus I doubt the Valkyrie would care much about political agenda or personal life... they're recruiters for the final battle, not for the next big revolution. The only thing they'd care about is making sure their recruits are willing to fight in it- whatever the reason. Viking-style honor would be perfect, but not necessary... at minimum, sufficient dedication to any cause that could line up....

[vonpenguin]

The light brigade. That is all.

[mdodd]

Audie Murphy

[Silverblaze]

Define honor.

The Vikings had a code of honor- and a pretty serious one- just one we wouldn't necessarily immediately grasp. More of a dedication/bravery/braggery(was actually a virtue for them) thing. A serious look at their gods will show that- Tyr was their god's king before Odin- only lost the position because he lost his hand... which he sacrificed to bind Fenris (which he didn't need to sacrifice if he'd been willing to renege on a bet).

As for being anti-external authority... that's at least a little shaky... they had a lot of respect for their kings, as long as their kings had respect for them. The Vikings would've hated modern culture, because the leaders of today (which the vikings would've seen as anyone with wealth) weren't taking care of their warriors or their people... so yeah- anti-current-external-authority, but not anarchists- not even vaguely.

Plus I doubt the Valkyrie would care much about political agenda or personal life... they're recruiters for the final battle, not for the next big revolution. The only thing they'd care about is making sure their recruits are willing to fight in it- whatever the reason. Viking-style honor would be perfect, but not necessary... at minimum, sufficient dedication to any cause that could line up....

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Apology to Moderator staff.  If the below rant crosses any lines I'll gladly remove it from the post; it certainly doesn't pertain much to the thread at large.

/rant

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The written word, whilst my favorite medium for self expression is inherently flawed.  It is hard to convey things other than fact (emotion, context, sarcasm).  I tend to be busy enough that when posting on things I don't deem extremely important I tend to type fast and supply a few common typos.  Speech has the advantage of an easy back space (repeating a statement) and spelling errors are generally impossible.  Long story short, I apologize [please note sarcasm] for a hasty post, with concise meaning in mind.  I also apologize for not nitpicking and cramming my "expertise" on more topics down folks throats.  This is afterall the internet and a forum. Now {insert genuine feelings here} I do apologize for the snark in this post and rant, I just get tired o people talking down to me because I don't feel much like extrapolating on a given topic all day long.

Honorable was me dumbing down or simplifying what took a half wall of text to say.  My bad.  In general I don't feel the need to extrapolate on my "expertise" on topics.  Honor was a poor word anyhow...99% of the planet either doesn't know what the original dictionary definition of the word nor would anyone's personal honor match.

In my opinion, most people ( you know non experts on pagan cultures of old or especially vikings ) would assume literally stabbing someone in the back or killing them in their sleep (generally preventing that warrior [the one who died in his sleep] from going to Valhalla) for a woman or trinket would be classified under unhonorable behavior.  There are plenty of theives, liars, murderers, and rapists in Valhalla as we speak.  I think these tidbits of information may be important while selecting people for that list.

So sorry I wasn't clear.

/shoots troll dead

[ARedthorn]

Umm... ok?

1- trying to further refine the image of Einherjar/Vikings-in-general that I was putting forward.

2- trying to contest your statement

Many einherjar would likely not be remotely good or honorable people.

as well as R_C's

I'm thinking of outlaw bikers.  The type who enjoy fighting (basically over nothing).  Hell Angels, Outlaws, Bandidos - and their fellow riders.  Their love of fighting and their disregard of external authority are similar to how the Vikings lived.

without being an arse, by giving benefit of the doubt, and then explaining myself.

3- so much for that. If I came across troll-ish, or like I was talking down to you... sorry. I point to your own complaints about the written word as possible culprits.

Simple form:
Love of fighting? Good. By itself? Not good enough.
Disregard of external authority? Not a deal-breaker, but not really in-character either.
Complete lack of Honor? Definitely a deal-breaker. They have to be driven by something important enough they'd be willing to die repeatedly pursuing a fight they knew they were going to lose...
Lack of 'Goodness'? Probably ok.

Copy?

[Becq]

While I haven't studied the subject, I did a bit of looking and found some information from the Prose Edda which seems to qualify as a primary source (written around 1220).  In any case, according to it, "all those who fall in battle are [Odin's] adopted sons" and are known as Einherjar.  This includes "all those men that have fallen in battle since the beginning of the world".

So if you go by that, then the only requirement is that you must die in battle.  Depending on interpretation, this might require the candidate to die fighting (because if they were fleeing or were a noncombatant, then they might not themselves be "in battle" despite dying on a battlefield due to a battle).  No requirement for skill, or overt levels of heroism, cultural background, etc.  (There is mention of oaths sworn to Odin, so I assume there's an opt-out clause for those who choose not to join up, which might weed out those who don't like to fight enough that they want to continue fighting until the end of the world.)

I guess it depends on how you define the Einherjar at your table.

[beachhead1973]

Audie Murphy

Bingo, I agree completely.

I'll rep my country's answer to the say question; Tommy Prince