The Valkyrie's Vigil (Elegant Lady in a Castle) Paper Plate

This design features a painting by the artist Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914). It shows a beautiful woman wearing a long blue dress; she is sitting on the crenelated ramparts of a castle, and she is holding her helmet and sword in her hand. A bright white light is shining on the woman from above. The woman is a Valkyrie, one of Odin's war-maiden goddesses in Old Norse mythology. The traditional role of a Valkyrie is to escort the most valiant warriors who die in battle to Valhalla, which was Odin's hall of the afterlife where the bravest warriors would spend eternity after death. Maidens and their association with death were a popular theme in Pre-Raphaelite art, including characters as Ophelia and the Lady of Shalott. The original artwork by E.R. Hughes was painted in 1906.