Valhalla hasn’t come up a whole lot in earlier Thor movies, but when characters start mentioning it early on in Thor: Love and Thunder, you know this classic aspect of Norse mythology is going to be a big deal. Specifically, you know that someone’s going to bite the dust. But what exactly is Valhalla, or the Hall of Slain Warriors? Here’s what you need to know!
Contains major spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder!
Valhalla in the MCU
Early in the movie, Thor answers a distress call from his old friend Lady Sif, who’s had a run-in with Gorr the God Butcher. When he goes to help her, he discovers that she’s been gravely injured and left with only one arm. But don’t worry, she tells him—she’s made peace with dying, and she’s ready to go to Valhalla.
Then Thor corrects her, reminding her that she survived the fight with Gorr. You only go to Valhalla if you die in battle. “Shit!” Sif says, suddenly very eager to live.
At the end of the movie, Jane, now an honorary Asgardian goddess thanks to Mjolnir’s magic, dies and finds herself in a sunny harbor with a large hall off in the distance. Heimdall appears before her and welcomes her to Valhalla.
Valhalla in Norse Mythology
In the original Norse myths, Valhalla was one of several possible afterlife realms for Vikings. Some of them, like Helgafjell and Volkvanger, were pretty pleasant. Hel, reserved for people who died of disease and old age, was an underworld where you didn’t want to end up. But the best place to go was Valhalla, the realm of the Einherjar, Odin’s adopted children.
According to Viking thought, whenever there was a battle, all the slain warriors would be divided into two groups. One group would go to Folkvanger with the goddess Freya. The other half, selected by the valkyries, would be taken to a great hall where they would spend the afterlife feasting, drinking, and sparring with each other. This was Valhalla (in Old Norse, Valholl, or “Hall of the Slain”). When it came time for Ragnarok, Odin would gather all his Einherjar and turn them into his army in the final battle against the forces of Hel, led by Loki.
Valhalla in Marvel Comics
Valhalla comes up occasionally in the Marvel comics the MCU is based on, and it’s usually pretty true to the source material. For example, at the end of Loki: Agent of Asgard, the world is ending and it’s time for Ragnarok to occur. Freya (Frigga’s comics counterpart) sacrifices her life in battle so that she can go to Valhalla and rally Asgard’s slain warriors. When she arrives at Valhalla, it’s exactly as one would picture it: a huge hall where Asgardians are happily feasting. True to the Norse myths, when Freya tells them it’s time to go fight in Ragnarok, they happily obey.
Who All is in Valhalla?
The Thor franchise might have the highest casualty rate of any MCU series, what with Hela’s destruction and the demise of Asgard and most of its people in Thor: Ragnarok. Heimdall’s gesture toward the hall at the end of Love and Thunder is a really tantalizing moment for Thor fans. Who all is in there, waiting to welcome Jane into their ranks?
Well, we know that Frigga, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun are sure to be waiting in Valhalla, since they all died in battle: Frigga fighting the dark elves to protect Jane, and the Warriors 3 fighting Hela in Ragnarok. (Volstagg and Fandral barely knew what hit them, it happened so quick, but I think it still counts.) Heimdall is obviously there, because we saw him.
But there are some borderline cases, too. Is Odin in Valhalla? He died of old age, but it seems unimaginable that he’d be left out, and when Thor prays for him in Ragnarok, he seems sure that Odin’s in Valhalla. What about Loki, who’s an adopted Asgardian? In Loki, when he thinks he’s died, he’s 100% certain that he’s Hel-bound, but in the main Marvel universe, he did call himself an Odinson and die in battle. I’m going to go ahead and decide that Loki and Odin made it to Valhalla, because then I can stop worrying about them.
Will we see Valhalla in the MCU again? It’s hard to say! We know that Thor will return in some capacity in future MCU projects, so it’s possible. In the meantime, we can wish Jane well as she embarks on her new life as one of the Einherjar.
(image: Marvel)
