There are some notable women warriors in the Bible as well. Not as many as in the other traditions that have been discussed, but they are there.
Judges 4 especially comes to mind. At the time Israel was under attack from Jabin, the king of Canaan, and his general Sisera. The (political) leader of Israel at the time was a prophetess called Deborah, and her general was Barak. Deborah commanded the military over Barak's head:
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Up; for this is the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? JDG 4:14b KJV
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and she prophecied Sisera's defeat by a woman:
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for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. JDG 4:9b KJV
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That woman was Jael, one of the strongest female figures in the Bible. Her husband, Heber, was a traitor to Israel, working with Sisera; so when he came to their tent seeking shelter Jael invited him in. She got him drunk and then drove a
tent peg through his temples and into the ground while he slept.
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And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples. JDG 4:22 KJV
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Sorry I had to use King James, it was the best online version I could find on short notice. But Tolkien's Christianity does play a role in his writing, and the concept of the woman warrior isn't entirely absent in the Bible. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
[Edit:] Jael falls more into the camp of the avenging woman than the Valkyrie, she was in a sense trying to atone for her husband's treachery. Deborah on the other hand was a strong female leader who was "raised up", and probably trained from childhood.
Sophia
[ April 09, 2003: Message edited by: Sophia the Thunder Mistress ]