Balder: God of Light, Joy, Purity, Beauty, Innocence, and Reconciliation
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.
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: e ...