Halls of Valhalla - 13th Warrior

Just saw the 13th Warrior yesterday. Though I read the book some time ago, the movie is priceless with Antonio Banderas' face healing super-fast (maybe he got a nose job done by that blonde woman before he embarked on a ship back south), washing away gore and blood super-fast (yeah, since he's pretty, rain gushed down upon the face of his extremely hard), and ... a nice Here-We-Go-To-Fight-And-Die poem that can be heard both at the begining and the end.

Lo, there do I see my father,
lo, there do I see my mother, and my sisters and my brothers.
Lo, there do I see the line of my people,
back to the begining.
Lo, they do call to me,
they bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla,
where the brave may live forever.

From motion picture 13th Warrior eulogy/elegy/Death song. (Based on "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton [Wikipedia] [on Amazon].)

Since visual art works better, here is the link to the movie clip that can be found on Youtube, whence they say the song in most solemn and manly* a manner.

Also, some nice quotes from the book here.

For those curious about the truthfulness of the cited quote: the actual verse seems to be with 'brothers coming before sisters' (as usually happens with men, out of "historical" or bodily reasons), plus another line after Valhalla one:

"They bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla
Where thine enemies have been vanquished
Where the brave shall live Forever
Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death."

                                  Wikianswers: Is the Norse Prayer from 13th Warrior real or Hollywood?

 If you were considering to tattoo it on yourself, maybe consider reading this post on Yahoo answers first.


And as often happens when you dig stuff up in books or on the internet, I got carried away, but found this rather 'lovely' page, which does have also the quote mentioned, but also a nice vow for Marriage and that for a Warrior (not sure of its authenticity, though). But if true, appears to have been influenced by Christianity, anyway.


*Manly as in ungabunga, "We must kill these people before they kills us!".