The Shining God, Fairest of the Aesir
Baldr, son of Odin and Frigg, is the fairest and most beloved of the gods; the Prose Edda says light shines from him, and that the whitest of plants is compared to his brow. He dwells in Breidablik, 'broad gleaming', where nothing unclean may enter. When he was troubled by dreams of his own death, his mother travelled the world taking oaths from fire and water, iron and stone, trees, beasts, birds, and serpents that none would harm him. Only a young mistletoe growing west of Valhalla seemed too slight to swear.
The gods made a game of his invulnerability, hurling weapons at him for sport. Loki discovered the one omission, cut the mistletoe into a dart, and placed it in the hand of Baldr's blind brother Hod, guiding the throw. Baldr fell dead. His body was burned on the great ship Hringhorni with the gold ring Draupnir; his wife Nanna died of grief and shared the pyre. Hermod rode Sleipnir to the realm of the dead to ransom him, and Hel set her price: let all things weep. Everything in the world wept except one giantess, Thokk, whom most accounts take to be Loki in disguise, and so Baldr remained among the dead.
The Voluspa promises his return: after the fires of Ragnarok he and Hod will come back together to the halls of the new world. Saxo Grammaticus preserves a very different Danish version, in which Balderus is a warlike demigod rivaling Hotherus for a woman's hand.
