Word.ws English Dictionary

shield maiden

shield maiden is the alternative form of shieldmaiden.

Meaning of shieldmaiden

Noun

shieldmaiden (plural shieldmaidens)

  1. (Norse) A female virgin who had chosen to fight as a warrior in battle.
    • The shield-maiden (skölde-mö) was dedicated to Odin, and forbidden to wed; her love brought calamity.1845 [1832–1836], Erik Gustaf Geijer, translated by J. H. Turner, The History of the Swedes, London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane, translation of Svenska folkets historia (in Swedish), page 33

Forms of shield maiden

pluralshield maidens

Questions about shield maiden

What is shield maiden the alternative form of?
Shield maiden is the alternative form of shieldmaiden.

Words near shield maiden in the dictionary

  1. shield bugs
  2. shield fern
  3. shield ferns
  4. shield law
  5. shield laws
  6. shield maiden
  7. shield maidens
  8. Shield of David
  9. Shield Row
  10. shield shrimp
  11. shield volcano

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shield maiden (page history and authors); shieldmaiden (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “shield maiden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shield_maiden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.