Snorri Sturluson, writing in the 13th century, told of a god so fair that light shone from him. This was Baldur, the best loved of all the gods, and his mother Frigg adored him. He was the wisest of the gods and the most gracious in his speech. His hall let nothing impure through its doors. This is a myth, and it matters because it is the story of how the gods' own world began to end. Then Baldur started to have nightmares. They showed him a great danger, one that threatened his life. He told the other gods, and they were deeply troubled by these omens of his death. They met in council to decide how to keep him safe. But how do you protect someone from everything, and what, in a world so full of things, might be forgotten?
The Death of Baldur
In Snorri's Prose Edda, Baldur dies when blind Hodr throws a mistletoe shaft that Loki handed him.
Chapter 1
A Dream of Danger
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the story of Baldur's death come from?
The fullest version is in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. The Poetic Edda's Völuspá also names Baldur's death as the first sign of Ragnarok. The 12th-century historian Saxo Grammaticus told a different version, in which Balderus was a mortal warrior.
Why did the mistletoe kill Baldur?
Frigg collected oaths from every substance and living thing not to harm her son, but she thought the mistletoe too young to swear. Loki learned this and shaped the plant into a shaft. Because it had made no oath, it could pierce Baldur.
Why did Baldur stay in the realm of the dead?
Hel offered to release him if every single thing in the world wept for him. The gods persuaded even stones and metals to weep, but a giantess named Thökk, believed to be Loki in disguise, refused. Baldur had to stay until the end of the world.
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