Valda the Iron Maiden
Encyclopedia
Valda the Iron Maiden is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...

 and Ernie Colón
Ernie Colon
Ernie Colón is an American comics artist, born on July 13, 1931,Colón was born in Puerto Rico and began his professional career at Harvey Comics as a letterer. He later worked, uncredited, as an artist on titles including Monster in My Pocket, Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost...

 for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

. She debuted in Arak, Son of Thunder
Arak (comics)
Arak is a fictional comic book character published by DC Comics. He first appeared in a special insert in Warlord #48 and was created by Roy Thomas and Ernie Colón.-Publication history:...

#3 (August 1981).

Unlike other sword-and-sorcery
Sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...

 heroines (such as Red Sonja
Red Sonja
Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a fictional character, a high fantasy sword and sorcery heroine created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, and loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino in Robert E. Howard's 1934 short story "The Shadow of the Vulture"...

), Valda is practically dressed in a full mail
Mail (armour)
Mail is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.-History:Mail was a highly successful type of armour and was used by nearly every metalworking culture....

 shirt, flat-heeled boots and (often) leather trousers.

Fictional character biography

Valda the Iron Maiden was a female knight and one of the Twelve Peers of Carolus Magnus
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

' court. She was born in Aix-la-Chapelle
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

, Frankland in the 8th century A.D., the daughter of Bradamante
Bradamante
Bradamante is the sister of Rinaldo, and one of the heroines in Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto in their handling of the Charlemagne legends, also called the Matter of France.She falls in love with the Saracen warrior Ruggiero, but refuses to...

 and (reputedly) Carolus Magnus.

After her mother's death in the ambush at Roncesvalles
Roncesvalles
Roncesvalles is a small village and municipality in Navarre, northern Spain. It is situated on the small river Urrobi at an altitude of some 900 metres in the Pyrenees, about 8 kilometres from the French frontier....

, Valda was brought up by Carolus Magnus, his court sorcerer
Magician (fantasy)
A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...

 Malagigi
Maugris
In the Matter of France, Maugris or Maugis was one of the heroes of the chansons de geste and romances of chivalry that tell of the legendary court of King Charlemagne. He is cousin to Renaud de Montauban , son of Beuves of Aygremont and brother to Vivien de Monbranc. He was brought up by Oriande...

 and Bishop Turpin
Turpin (archbishop)
Roland]].He is probably identical with , an 8th-century archbishop of Reims alluded to by Hincmar, his third successor in the Holy See. According to Flodoard, Charles Martel drove Rigobert, archbishop of Reims, from his office and replaced Rigobert with a warrior clerk named Milo, afterwards bishop...

. She was tutored as a swordswoman by the ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

 of Amadis of Gaul
Amadis de Gaula
Amadis de Gaula is a landmark work among the knight-errantry tales which were in vogue in 16th century Iberian Peninsula, and formed the earliest reading of many Renaissance and Baroque writers, although it was written at the onset of the 14th century.The first known printed edition was published...

, who she had summoned with a spell that she had overheard Malagigi using. Initially refused knighthood by the king, she posed as the "Knight All in Scarlet" and defeated her uncle, the great knight Rinaldo
Renaud de Montauban
Renaud de Montauban, was a fictional hero who was introduced to literature in a 12th century Old French chanson de geste also known as Les Quatre Fils Aymon . His exploits form part of the Doon de Mayence cycle of chansons...

, in a joust to earn the honour.

She was 5' 6" tall, weighed 113 lbs, and had blue eyes and dark brown hair.

She first met Arak, Son of Thunder while she was under the spell of the sorcerer Baledor and later joined him in searching for Malagigi who had been captured by the sorceress Angelica. Valda and Arak adventured together and fell in love.

More recently, she was transported to the present day to become a member of the extended Shadowpact
Shadowpact
The Shadowpact is a group of magic-based heroes who fought against the Spectre in the 2005 limited series Day of Vengeance, published by DC Comics. They are a sort of Justice League for the supernatural elements of the DC Universe...

 in the Day of Vengeance
Day of Vengeance
Day of Vengeance is a six-issue comic book limited series written by Bill Willingham, with art by Justiniano and Walden Wong, published in 2005 by DC Comics.-Publication history:...

special.
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