Valkyrie n.

heavenly hall in which Odin receives the souls of heroes slain in battle, 1696 (in Archdeacon Nicolson's "English Historical Library"), from Old Norse Valhöll "hall of the battle-slain;" first element from valr "those slain in battle," from Proto-Germanic *walaz (source also of Old English wæl "slaughter, bodies of the slain," Old High German wal "battlefield, slaughter"), from PIE root *wele- (2) "to strike, wound" (source also of Avestan vareta- "seized, prisoner," Latin veles "ghosts of the dead," Old Irish fuil "blood," Welsh gwel "wound"). Second element is from höll "hall," from PIE root *kel- (1) "to cover, conceal, save." Reintroduced by 18c. antiquaries. Figurative sense is from 1845.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to taste; to choose." It forms words for "taste" in Greek and Latin, but its descendants in Germanic and Celtic mostly mean "try" or "choose." The semantic development could have been in either direction.

It forms all or part of: Angus; choice; choose; degustation; disgust; Fergus; gustation; gustatory; gusto; ragout; Valkyrie.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit jus- "enjoy, be pleased;" Avestan zaosa- "pleasure," Old Persian dauš- "enjoy;" Greek geuesthai "to taste;" Latin gustare "to taste, take a little of;" Old English cosan, cesan, Gothic kausjan "to test, to taste of," Old High German koston "try," German kosten "taste of."

see Valkyrie.