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The god of light, joy, purity, beauty, innocence, and reconciliation. Son
of Odin and Frigg. He was loved by both gods and man and was
considered to be the best of the gods. He had a good character, was
friendly, wise and eloquent, although he had little power. His wife is
Nanna, daughter of Nep, and their son is Forseti, the god of justice.
Balder's hall is Breidablik ('broad splendor').
Most of the stories about Balder concern his death. He was dreaming
about his death 1, so Frigg extracted an oath from every creature, object
and force in nature (snakes, metals, diseases, poisons, fire, etc.) that they
would never harm Balder. They agreed that none of their kind would
ever hurt or assist in hurting Balder. Thinking him invincible, the gods
enjoyed themselves thereafter by using Balder as a target for
knife-throwing and archery.
Balder belurer Nanna. The scene is described in Ge...
An illustration of the blind Höðr killing Baldr,...
Höder schleudert, von Loke verleitet, den Wurfger...The malicious trickster Loki, who was jealous of Balder, changed his
appearance and asked Frigg if there was absolutely nothing that could
harm Balder. Frigg, suspecting nothing, answered that there was just one
thing: a small tree in the west that was called mistletoe, but she thought it
was too small to ask for an oath. Loki immediately left for the west and
returned with the mistletoe. He tricked Balder's blind twin brother Hod to
shoot with a mistletoe fig. Not knowing what he did, Hod threw the fig,
guided by Loki's aim, and Balder fell dead, pierced through the heart.
While the gods were lamenting over Balder's death, Odin sent his other
son Hermod to Hel, the goddess of death, to plead for Balder's return.
Hel agreed to send Balder back to the land of the living on one condition:
everything in the...