From Superheroines to Shieldmaidens: The Evolution of The Valkyries

The Valkyries was always meant to be a Fantasy novel.

But initially, Kaelva, Astrid, and Freyna’s story fell under the Superhero category.

Again, when I started The Valkyries, I never thought I’d share it with anyone, let alone try to get it published or build a website around it, so who cared what the genre was or how the story flowed.

In the first draft, Kaelva, Astrid, and Freyna first lived as mortals in the viking era, ascended to Valkyries to serve the realms for centuries—but when their world crumbled, they were cast down to a Midgard far different from the one they left.

They were now in our time.

Bringing Kaelva, Astrid, and Freyna to the modern era carried similarities to Marvel’s Thor (2011) or DC’s Wonder Woman (2017)—heroes who lived for centuries in worlds of myth now had to find their way in a world they didn’t recognize.

The change in time and setting offered some fun moments, like Astrid trying to figure out how to use a smartphone or Freyna offering holistic healing remedies with a pharmacy around the corner.

But my absolute favorite idea rested with Loki.

In the first draft, Astrid and Freyna walked through a city and passed by a movie theatre—where they would see a poster for Marvel’s Thor from 2011 with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki on it.

But they didn’t see Tom Hiddleston—they saw the Loki they knew from their time as Valkyries in Asgard.

In this version of The Valkyries, Loki infiltrated Hollywood, became a famous actor, and would end up playing himself.

Astrid and Freyna were not surprised by the God of Mischief’s latest scheme, but still found humor in it.

Plenty of opportunity in the clash between myth and modernity, but the transition carried a few problems as well.

The first of which was their weapons. 

The Valkyries lived during a time of blood and steel, so having them protect the innocent with swords and axes against modern weapons didn’t vibe well. 

Could I have made the story work? Sure, but I felt like I would be spending more time explaining why the weapon choices make sense instead of telling a tale of redemption.

Another question was where their story would go from here.

For centuries, they fought countless battles across the Nine Realms, so confining them just to Midgard felt like a hollow end.

Could The Valkyries have been a kick-off to a whole new universe of superheroes? Yes, I could, but that isn’t why I first wrote The Valkyries—I wrote The Valkyries around a scene of three fallen warriors finding a way to forgive each other and themselves, not as a stepping stone toward a series of superhero stories.

But who knows where Kaelva, Astrid, and Freyna’s story will go after The Valkyries…

But the main issue I had with the time jump—the one I simply could not ignore, no matter how well I explained it or bridged the gap—was that The Valkyries did not carry the same mythic tone as the first half of their story.

Standing within the realm of Norse mythology, the reader experiences a fascinating world of both epic and high fantasy.

But when Kaelva, Astrid, and Freyna find themselves in our time, the reader sees the familiar and the relative.

And the wonder is gone.

The Valkyries as it stands today—the version I’m presenting to agents as I continue querying—rests firmly within the viking era and Norse  mythology from beginning to end.

With a few tweaks, of course.

As much as I hated cutting the bit with Loki playing himself in movies, avoiding the hard shift between time periods only strengthened the foundation of The Valkyries, making it a story all of its own.

Not like Thor. 

Not like Wonder Woman. 

Not like anything else.

Kaelva, Astrid, and Freyna tell a story of forgiveness, redemption, and the strength of chosen bonds—something they could do as superheroines in our time or as shieldmaidens in the age of vikings.

Who they were and the bond between them remains unchanged.

And whether they’re standing on the top of a skyscraper or in their quarters in Valhalla, they would still cheer the same words: