Baldr

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Balder's death is portrayed in this illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript.

Baldr (modern Icelandic and Faroese Baldur, Balder is the name in modern Norwegian, Swedish and Danish and sometimes an anglicized form) is, in Norse Mythology, the god of innocence, beauty, joy, purity, and peace, and is Odin's second son. His wife is called Nanna and his son is called Forseti. Baldr had a ship, the largest ever built, named Hringhorni, and a hall, called Breidablik. Phol may have been a German name for Baldr, based on the second Merseburg charm, where the same person seems to be referred to as Phol and Balder.

[edit] The Prose Edda

Baldr's brow.

In the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda Baldr is described as follows.

Apart from this gushing description Baldr is known primarily for the myth surrounding his death. His death is seen as the first in the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarok. Baldr will be reborn in the new world, however, as foretold in the Völuspá. With this resurrection in mind, he is classified as a life-death-rebirth deity.

Due to perceived similarities, Baldr is sometimes associated with Christ in art^{[citation needed]}, as is clearly emphasized in this illustration of Baldrs draumar (1893).

He had a dream of his own death (or his mother had the same dreams). Since dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, and his mother Frigg made every object on earth vow never to hurt Baldr. All but one, an insignificant weed called the mistletoe, made this vow. Frigg had thought it too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow (alternatively, it seemed too young to swear). When Loki, the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant (in some later versions, an arrow). He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of hurling objects at Baldr, which would bounce off without harming him. Loki gave the spear to Baldr's brother, the blind god Höðr, who then inadvertently killed his brother with it. For this act, Odin and the giantess Rindr gave birth to Váli who grew to adulthood within a day and slew Höðr.

Baldr was ceremonially burnt upon his ship, Hringhorni, the largest of all ships. As he was carried to the ship, Odin whispered in his ear. This was to be a key riddle asked by Odin (in disguise) of the giant Vafthruthnir (and which was, of course, unanswerable) in the Vafthruthnismal (the riddle also appears in the riddles of Gestumblindi in Hervarar saga). The dwarf Litr was kicked by Thor into the funeral fire and burnt alive. Nanna, Baldr's wife, also threw herself on the funeral fire to await the end of Ragnarok when she would be reunited with her husband (alternatively, she died of grief). Baldr's horse with all its trappings was also burned on the pyre. The ship was set to sea by Hyrrokin, a giantess, who came riding on a wolf and gave the ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.

Upon Frigg's entreaties, delivered through the messenger Hermod, Hel promised to release Baldr from the underworld if all objects alive and dead would weep for him. And all did, except a giantess, Þökk, who refused to mourn the slain god. And thus Baldr had to remain in the underworld, not to emerge until after Ragnarok, when he and his brother Höðr would be reconciled and rule the new earth together with Thor's sons.

When the gods discovered that the giantess had been Loki in disguise, they hunted him down and bound him to three rocks. Then they tied a serpent above him, the venom of which dripped onto his face. His wife Sigyn gathered the venom in a bowl, but from time to time she had to turn away to empty it, at which point the poison would drip onto Loki, who writhed in pain, thus causing earthquakes. He would free himself, however, in time to attack the gods at Ragnarok.

[edit] The Poetic Edda

Loki tricks Höðr into shooting Baldr.

In the Elder Edda the tragic tale of Baldr is hinted at rather than told at length. Among the visions which the Norse Sibyl sees and describes in the weird prophecy known as the Völuspá is one of the fatal mistletoe. Yet looking far into the future the Sibyl sees a brighter vision of a new heaven and a new earth, where the fields unsown shall yield their increase and all sorrows shall be healed; then Baldr will come back to dwell in Odin's mansions of bliss, in a hall brighter than the sun, shingled with gold, where the righteous shall live in joy for ever more.

[edit] Gesta Danorum

Writing about the end of the 12th century, the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form which professes to be historical. According to him, Balderus and Høtherus were rival suitors for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar, King of Norway. Now Balderus was a demigod and common steel could not wound his sacred body. The two rivals encountered each other in a terrific battle. Though Odin and Thor and the rest of the gods fought for Balderus, he was defeated and fled away, and Høtherus married the princess. Nevertheless Balderus took heart of grace and again met Høtherus in a stricken field. But he fared even worse than before. Høtherus dealt him a deadly wound with a magic sword, which he had received from Miming, the satyr of the woods; and after lingering three days in pain Balderus died of his injury and was buried with royal honours in a barrow.

[edit] Chronicon Lethrense and Annales Lundenses

There are also two less known Danish Latin chronicles, the Chronicon Lethrense and the Annales Lundenses of which the latter is included in the former. These two sources provide a second euhemerized account of Höðr's slaying of Baldr.

It relates that Hother was the king of the Saxons and son of Hothbrod and the daughter of Hadding. Hother first slew Othen's (i.e. Odin) son Balder in battle and then chased Othen and Thor. Finally, Othen's son Both killed Hother. Hother, Balder, Othen and Thor were incorrectly considered to be gods.

[edit] Beowulf

In Beowulf Baldr appears as the geatish prince Herebeald, who is killed by his brother Hæþcyn (Höðr). The king Hreðel replaces Odin as the grieving father.

[edit] Merseburg Incantations

The Merseburg Incantations feature Balder and Nanna (here termed "Sinhtgunt") in an ancient spell for horse healing.

[edit] Baldr in place names

There are few place names in Scandinavia that contains the name Baldr. The most certain and notable one is the (former) parishname Baldishol in Hedmark county, Norway: "a Balldrshole" 1356 (where the last element is hóll m "mound; small hill"). Others may be (in Norse forms) Baldrsberg in Vestfold county, Baldrsheimr in Hordaland county Baldrsnes in Sør-Trøndelag county and the fjord and municipality Balsfjord in Troms county.

[edit] Analogues

The legendary death of Baldr resembles the legendary death of the Persian hero Esfandyar in the epic Shahnameh. In Finnish mythology, Lemminkäinen shares just the same kind of fate as Baldr: to be killed by a blind one at the feast of gods. Baldr has also been likened to Jesus, as C. S. Lewis did when he said he "loved Balder before Christ" (Surprised by Joy). Baldr, a god of light, shares some of Jesus' traits as a youthful "dying and rising" god, who returns after Ragnarok, the end of the world (comparable to the Christian Apocalypse) to usher in a new era of peace.

[edit] Baldr's brows

In Scandinavian, the Scentless Mayweed (Matricaria perforata) is named Baldr's brows because of its whiteness.

[edit] Modern popular culture

Main article: Balder in popular culture

Baldr has been the basis of various works of art and appears irregularly in modern popular culture.

[edit] References

• Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php.
• Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.). Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita. 2005. http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/gg/

[edit] External Links

• Viktor Rydberg's "Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland" e-book
• W. Wagner's "Asgard and the Home of the Gods" e-book
• "Myths of Northern Lands" e-book by H.A. Guerber
• Peter Andreas Munch's "Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes" e-book

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