Troubled by dreams of his own death, so his mother made the world swear not to harm him
Recounted in the Poetic Edda poem Baldrs draumar, in which Odin rides to Hel to wake a seeress.
Myth · Norse
Baldr
Norse mythology — the shining god of the Æsir
Baldr is the beautiful and beloved son of Odin and Frigg, so bright that light shines from him. His death — killed at a game by a dart of mistletoe in his blind brother's hand, guided by Loki — is the great tragedy of Norse myth and the first sign that Ragnarök is coming. He remains in Hel because one giantess refuses to weep, and returns to rule the new world after the old one burns.
How to spot them
- ▸The most beautiful and best-loved of the gods; light shines from him
- ▸Dwells in Breiðablik, the hall where nothing unclean may be
- ▸Killed by the one plant that never swore an oath
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Hringhorni', 'Hermóðr's ride', 'the giantess who would not weep'
Stories & episodes
Stood laughing while the gods threw stones and spears that bounced off him
It became the sport of the assembly — until Loki put a mistletoe dart in a blind hand.
His body was burned on a ship a giantess had to launch on a wolf
Hyrrokkin rode a wolf reined with vipers and shoved Hringhorni into the sea at a push.
Odin laid his ring Draupnir on the pyre, and Thor kicked a dwarf into the flames
The unlucky dwarf was Litr; the god's wife Nanna had already died of grief beside him.
Would have been released from Hel if every thing in the world wept for him
All did, except the giantess Þökk — Loki in disguise — who said Hel could keep what she had.
Returns with his blind brother to the green fields after the world has burned
In Völuspá they find the golden chess-pieces of the old gods in the grass.
Quick-fire facts
- •He is the son of Odin and Frigg; his wife is Nanna and their son is Forseti, god of justice
- •His hall is Breiðablik, 'broad-gleaming', where Grímnismál says nothing foul can stand
- •His blind brother Höðr threw the fatal dart; Odin fathered Váli to avenge him, and Váli killed Höðr at one night old
- •His funeral ship is Hringhorni, the largest of all ships, launched by the giantess Hyrrokkin
- •Snorri says he is so fair that a white flower — mayweed, 'Baldr's brow' — is named for him
- •Saxo Grammaticus tells a rival, euhemerised version in which Balderus and Høtherus are rivals for a princess and the fight is a human one
- •His death is the first of the signs that bring on Ragnarök
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Sacred Texts Archive — The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation) Baldrs draumar, Völuspá and Grímnismál
- Snorri Sturluson — The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) Gylfaginning for the death, funeral and Hermóðr's ride
- World History Encyclopedia — Baldr