Valkyrie Crow

Rerir now had plenty of treasure, and a wife who he thought suited
him. Nevertheless, they were together a long time without producing a
son to be Rerir’s heir. Both of them were unhappy about this, and they
prayed earnestly to the gods and asked them to grant them a child.

Frigg heard their prayer, and she told Óđin what they asked for.
He was not in any doubt about how to help, and he sent one of his
Valkyries, who was named Hljóđ, a daughter of the giant Hrímnir. He
gave the Valkyrie an apple and told her to give it to the king. She took
the apple and turned into a crow, and flew into Rerir’s kingdom and
found him where he sat on a burial mound. She dropped the apple on
his lap. He picked up the apple and thought he had an idea of what its
significance might be. He went home and met with his queen, and ate
a little of the apple.

The queen discovered shortly afterwards that she was pregnant, but
the pregnancy lasted an unusually long time while she remained unable
to give birth to the child.


- Volsunga Saga, Chapter 2