The same three appear in _Macbeth_ as the Weird Sisters; and it is
probably from this connexion that _weird_ has become an adjective for
all that savours of heathenism.

A frequent word for battle and carnage is _wæl_, and the root idea of
this word is choice, which may be illustrated from the German
_wählen_--to choose. The heathen idea was that Woden chose those who
should fall in battle to dwell with him in Walhalla, the Hall of the
chosen. In the exercise of this choice, Woden acted by female
messengers, called in the Norse mythology _valkyrja_, pl.
_valkyrjor_.[49]

All superior works in metal, as swords, coats of mail, jewels, are the
productions of Weland, the smith. His father is called Wudga, and his
son is called Wada; and with this child on his shoulder Weland strides
through water nine yards deep. This was matter of popular song down to
Chaucer's time:--

He songe, she playede, he told a tale of Wade.

"Troylus and Crescyde," iii., 615.

He had by Beadohild another son, in German named Witeche, who inherited
his father's skill and renown. For his violence to Beadohild, Weland was
lamed; but he made for himself a winged garment, wherewith he took his
flight through the air. He is at once the Daidalos and the Hephaistos
of the Greeks. The translator of the Boethian Metres has taken occasion
to bring in this heathen god, whose cult (it seems) was still too
active. In Metre ii., 7, where Boethius has the line--