Prologue:

Long ago before the Asgardians had discovered the wheel or learnt to harvest crops, there lived small bands of families whom salvaged land and resources, often stealing from each other to survive. They were primitive in nature, with little or no technology, and their only want in life was to live.

In one of these tribes there lived a loving and dedicated wife to its leader. Her love for him was her drive, and without his protection and presence in her life she would have not survived, and because of her dedication to him she dreaded every moment he was away from her. She would wish upon the glistening stars above that her lover would return each time he left to collect food or water, and each time he returned safe. Each time he returned she would wrap her arms around him tightly and kiss his forehead and glance up at the stars, thanking them for returning her husband to her.

As the season grew harsher, other tribes started to become more and more courageous and ferocious. Fights and battles broke out between neighbours and friends in a struggle for food. The harshness of the winter meant famine and illness swept over the lands, with some tribes being wiped out completely. Soon food and resources were so scarce that raids and pillaging led to the total decimation of villages and abandonment of towns.

The tribe which had the dedicated wife to its leader sent their men off into battle, and with the wishes on the stars he always returned. The other women of the tribe asked how the leader always returned unharmed, and soon the spread of prayers to the stars above began to be recited before each battle and sacrifices made to the light. Through the hopes of the women left behind all the men soon started to return safely back to them each time, bringing captives and resources back to camp. Soon the tribe became sturdily built with such strong fortifications that only a very large force could penetrate and storage for enough food for the winter.

Soon the outlying tribes were destroyed one by one until only three large groups were left. A tribe by the water, a tribe by the mountains and the tribe of the wishing women on the flat lands.

Skirmishes and small raids occurred between the three tribes and still the women wished and hoped and still the men returned safe. But soon the other tribes began to realise that there was something protecting the flat land tribe. It was impossible for all there men never to have any major injuries and survive all the battles that they took part in. The water tribe and mountain tribe soon conspired with each other to attack the flat land tribe.

One dark night, in the middle of the cold and wet season, the outlying tribes attacked. The sheer number of mercenaries overwhelmed the fortifications, as an army of that size had never been seen before, and the mutual understanding and fighting and common cause had only made them stronger. Panic and confusion overwhelmed the wishing women as their men were casually slaughtered in their beds. The women began to wish and pray and sacrifice, but no protection lay on the men as the hopes on the stars had not been made that night.

After the first screams were heard, the alarm was raised and soon the fighting started, but one by one the men slowly fell as their protection had not been replenished. The leader of the flat land tribe was the last man standing, and as he fell his wife cried with the anguish and the roar of all the other women who had lost their husbands filled the air. And that is when the light of the stars descended.

The women's cries soon turned into howls of pain as they began to grow in size to the size of small giants and wings began to emerge from their backs. The stars had answered the cries of the women but it had not been what they had expected.

As the leader's wife grew and white feathers spread out behind her, she took her husband's body in her arms and he began to breathe and rise into a second life.

Sounds of disbelief and awe filled the air as the attackers stood back in shock. The star light flooded the flat lands and lit up the night into a second day. All the wishing women soon took up the fallen men and followed the leader and his wife, and the beating of wings mixed with the cries of the devoted wife's name as they rose into the star light.

'Valkyrie! Valkyrie! Valkyrie!'

And from then on, reports of these winged women taking men after they fell in battle to Valhalla had been scattered throughout Asgardian history.