Baldur- Norse GodDeity"The Beautiful"

The Shining One

Snorri records that there was a flower so white it was likened to Baldur's brow. Light shone from his body. His hall in Asgard, Breiðablik ("Broad Gleaming"), permitted nothing impure within its walls: no falsehood, no malice could cross the threshold.

He was Odin and Frigg's son, second among the sons of Odin but the one they loved best.

The Prophetic Dreams

Baldur began to suffer terrible dreams, dark visions of his own death that troubled all of Asgard. The gods recognized portents of fate when they saw them. Something terrible was approaching.

Odin saddled Sleipnir and rode down to Niflheim. At a grave east of Hel's gates, he raised a dead völva from her burial mound. The Baldrs draumar recounts this journey: the seeress, awakened against her will from death's sleep, confirmed what Odin feared. Baldur was fated to die. Höðr would be the slayer, and a son not yet born, Váli, would avenge the killing. She could offer no way to change what was ordained.

Frigg's Oath

Frigg refused to accept the verdict. She traveled through all the Nine Worlds and extracted from every substance a sacred oath never to harm Baldur. Fire swore not to burn him, iron not to cut him, and every other substance in the worlds followed. One thing she passed over. The mistletoe was too young and too small to matter, a parasitic plant with no strength of its own.

The Fatal Game

The gods, delighted by Baldur's invulnerability, invented a new sport. They gathered in the assembly place and threw everything they could find at him. Swords bounced off. Stones fell away. Nothing left a mark, and the gods laughed.

Loki did not. He disguised himself as an old woman and visited Frigg, drawing from her the admission that mistletoe alone had not sworn the oath. He found the plant and fashioned a dart from it.

Höðr, Baldur's blind brother, stood apart from the games, unable to aim. Loki approached with apparent kindness, placed the mistletoe in Höðr's hand, and guided his throw. The dart pierced Baldur's heart. The shining god fell.

Silence. The gods stood frozen, unable to speak. Baldur lay dead, killed by his own brother with the one substance in all the worlds that could harm him. Snorri calls it the worst misfortune ever to befall gods and men.

The Failed Rescue

No violence was permitted in the assembly place, so vengeance had to wait. Frigg asked who among the Æsir would ride to Helheim and bargain for Baldur's return. Hermóðr volunteered.

On Sleipnir, Hermóðr rode nine nights through dark valleys and over echoing bridges until he reached the river Gjöll. The maiden Móðguðr, guardian of the golden bridge, let him pass, noting he lacked the pallor of the dead. Sleipnir leaped Hel's gates in a single bound.

Hermóðr found Baldur seated in a place of honor in Hel's hall. He pleaded for his brother's release. Hel set a condition: if every living thing in the world wept for Baldur, she would let him go. If even one refused, he stayed.

The Giantess Who Would Not Weep

Messengers went out through all the worlds. Men wept, and gods, and even stone and metal wept, the way frost weeps from frozen things when warmth comes. It seemed certain Baldur would return.

In a cave, the messengers found a giantess named Þökk. She refused: "Þökk will weep dry tears for Baldur's funeral. Let Hel hold what she has." One refusal was enough. Baldur remained with the dead. The gods suspected Þökk was Loki in yet another shape.

The Funeral and Aftermath

Baldur's body was placed on Hringhorni, the greatest of all ships. The giantess Hyrrokkin was summoned from Jötunheim to launch it; when she shoved the vessel, the rollers burst into flame and the earth shook. Nanna, Baldur's wife, died of grief on the spot and was laid beside him. Odin placed his ring Draupnir on the pyre and bent to whisper something in his dead son's ear. No one else heard the words. No one ever will.

Thor consecrated the pyre with Mjölnir. The flames rose, and with them the last brightness left Asgard. Loki's part in the killing was discovered. The gods bound him with the entrails of his own son beneath a serpent whose venom drips on his face without ceasing. He will writhe there until Ragnarök frees him to lead the forces of chaos.

The Promise of Return

Saxo Grammaticus tells a different story. In his Gesta Danorum, Balderus is no gentle god of light but a warlike demigod who competes with the hero Høtherus for the maiden Nanna. Høtherus defeats him in battle and kills him with a magical sword.

But the Völuspá gives Baldur a different ending. After Ragnarök, when a new world rises green from the sea, he will return from Hel. He and Höðr will dwell together, reconciled. The surviving gods will gather where Asgard once stood and find in the grass the golden gaming pieces the Æsir played with before everything went wrong.