In Norse mythology they say that when a man or woman dies the death of a true warrior, a battle maiden of Odin shall descent and bear their spirit to Valhalla, where the warrior shall drink mead and feast with his comrades until the setting of the sun, and hunt for the duration of the night. And once enough noble warriors had been gathered, the Aesir - Gods who ruled over mankind - would finally be able to confront their mortal enemies - the Vanir, or the giants - in the final battle that would end the world. And the name of that battle would be Ragnarok ~ The Twilight of the Gods.

Unfortunately for Lenneth Valkyrie, the time of Ragnarok is at hand.

I have to admit, being a Valkyrie for Lord Odin, as well as serving double duty as the Chooser of the Slain and an Aspect of the Goddesses of Fate (the Norns are not directly mentioned in Valkyrie Profile, but Lenneth seems to serve an exact match for Verdathi, while her sisters serve to match Skuld and Urd) would be an exhausting job even at the best of times. It certainly is not one that I would want, and unfortunately our poor Lady Valkyrie is stuck with it. And thus awakened from her slumber by Freya and ordered by Lord Odin to search the world for warriors who can serve the Aesir when the time of Ragnarok arrives, Valkyrie begins what must be the most thankless task any goddess can possibly be given.

It must sound odd that I am portraying Lenneth as a poor, picked on character. In my eyes at least, she is. Lenneth Valkyrie is portrayed through the game as an extraordinarily strong willed woman - even goddess hood and its perks notwithstanding, Lenneth would be able to change the course of the world through sheer determination and stubbornness - but at some point one must decide that enough is enough. Valkyrie goes through enough hardship in the course of the A ending of Valkyrie Profile to elicit sympathy from anyone, let alone this poor overemotional sap of a webmaster. ^^; Not to mention the fact that she is almost heart stoppingly beautiful.... then again, there is always something about silver hair that just spells out 'exotic'...

The role that Lenneth plays as she travels across Midgard in search of worthy warriors is part exterminator, part trainer. If not for the fact that her trainees are considerably impressive, not to mention buff in some cases, one would be tempted to say that she carries them all around in red balls and shouts for them to perform their special attacks as the Einherjar ride into battle. But all joking aside, Lenneth receives the thankless task of not only locating the souls of fallen warriors, but she also most train them so that they are worthy of entering the holy war in Asgard.

I must admit that I respect Lenneth for not losing her temper with half of the warriors that she manages to scrap together from the land of men. Given that this is something I struggled to do on a daily basis in my old job, I can gladly sympathize with the poor woman. But you can not fault her dedication - even under the most adverse circumstances Lenneth manages to flawlessly perform her duty as the Chooser of the Slain...

That is, until two rather particular men step into her life.

Probably the most interesting portion of Valkyrie Profile is the interaction between Lucian, Lezard, and Valkyrie. It is when we first meet the rather off kilter necromancer Lezard Valeth that we begin to receive small, no so subtle hints as to the problems that are going to face Valkyrie as time goes on. Because the man is literally *obsessed* with poor Lenneth, to the point where even trying to put a sword into his head is not enough to deter him from pursuing his self proclaimed love. Ahem... but enough about Lezard. He will have is own shrine, eventually. ^_^

It turns out that poor Lenneth is the most eligible bachlorette on this side of Yggdrasil, and that there are quite a few supernatural, as well as natural, beings who are out to win her hand in one way or another. Beyond Lucian, a poor boy who believes that Valkyrie resembles his long dead childhood love, and Lezard, who's reasons for loving Valkyrie are known only to himself, she is also courted by a Vampire Lord, the Trickster God himself... and I could digress.

And poor Lenneth manages to face all of this with a stoicism and dedication that truly has to be seen to be believed. When you have at least four men/demons/gods vying for your hand, it has to be difficult to try and prepare for the end of the world... and that alone makes Valkyrie worthy of respect.

I could go on further, but that would also be revealing far too many spoilers about the A ending to the game. Sufficient to say, Lenneth Valkyrie remains one of the most fascinating, and unfortunately much maligned and abused, characters.

Unforunately, I can not remember where I found this fanart of Lenneth - if anyone has any information on where I can contact the artist, please let me know.