Daudha-gydhja

A daudha-gydhja (plural daudha-gydhjur) is literally a "death-priestess" - a woman specifically trained in the rites and ceremonies of death and burial. She knows something of medicine and healing, to potentially bring the dying back from the brink if it is not their time, but also to ease the passage of those fated to die into the next world. A daudha-gydhja may also serve as an executioner, rendering capital punishment to those found worthy of death, whether through poison or more brutal means. Symbolically, a daudha-gydhja serves as a mortal equivalent of a valkyrja, a "chooser-of-the-slain" who decides who lives and who dies.

She is not really a servant of a particular god or goddess, but rather serves all the Aesir and Vanir in opposing Hel, who claims the dishonored dead (and potentially those who fail to receive proper rites), and Ran, who claims those lost at sea and drowned.

For followers of the Aesir, she normally practices the cremation of the dead, and for followers of the Vanir, she normally practices inhumation of the dead (whether in graves or in burial mounds - vide haugar), but both practices are acceptable, and she takes circumstances into account in planning her funeral rites.

According to the traditions of Midhgardhur, only a woman may become a daudha-gydhja. It is one of the very few truly "gendered" positions in Northern society, which is otherwise extremely egalitarian in the North. While only women are initiated, precluding men from serving, initiation is available to all women who seek it, including transgender women (per the story "Wolfsbane").

Daudha-gydhjur appear in the Tales From Midhgardhur stories "Angels of Death" (Volume II) and "Wolfsbane" (Volume III).

Source: The idea for the daudhja-gydhja came from the famous account of Ibn Fadlan among the Rus. He recounts a royal funeral among the Viking Rus, and writes of a special death-priestess called "the Angel of Death" who oversees such funerals. To my knowledge, the existence of an "Angel of Death" who oversees funeral rites is not attested in any other historical source, but the idea provokes a powerful fascination. The "Angel of Death" priestess played a major role in Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead (which was based on the Ibn Fadlan account) and the movie The Thirteenth Warrior (itself based on Eaters of the Dead), and has entered mainstream accounts and depictions of how Viking Age people lived and died. Angel of Death is a playable character class in some Viking-themed fantasy RPGs (like Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok). The concept and image is a powerful one, and so I wanted to find a way to incorporate that into the Midhgardhur stories.