The Valkyries also share the folkloric motif of the swan maidens, young girls who are able to take on the form of a swan. If you could capture and hold a swan maiden, or seize her feathered cloak, you could make her grant your wish.
Robert Graves says this: "In mediaeval Irish poetry Mary [the mother of Christ] was ... identified with Brigit the Goddess of Poetry ... In Gaelic Scotland her symbol was the White Swan, and she was known as Bride of the Golden Hair, Bride of the White Hills, mother of the King of Glory.