The Edda, Volume 1 | Page 6

Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The
chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse
mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero
transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with or

without Christian colouring; (4) that it is entirely borrowed from
Mediæval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too
ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is nothing
essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend, while the solar
idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to the myth in the
Elder Edda are:
(1) Vegtamskvida (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to the
meaning of Baldr's dreams:
Odin. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the halls
fairly adorned with gold?"
Sibyl. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the shields
are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."
Odin. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"
Sibyl. "Höd bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be Baldr's
slayer and rob Odin's son of life."
Odin. "Who will avenge the deed on Höd and bring Baldr's slayer to
the funeral pyre?"
Sibyl. "Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall not
wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe to the pyre."
(2) In Lokasenna Frigg says: "If I had a son like Baldr here in Oegi's
halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir, but be slain
here in thy anger"; to which Loki replies, "Wilt thou that I speak more
ill words, Frigg? I am the cause that thou wilt never more see Baldr
ride into the hall."
(3) In Vafthrudnismal the only reference is Odin's question, "What said
Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?"
(4) In _Völuspa_ the Sibyl prophesies, "I saw doom threatening Baldr,
the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows

stood the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked so
slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. Höd shot it, and Frigg wept
in Fenhall over Valhall's woe." The following lines, on the chaining of
Loki, suggest his complicity.
(5) Hyndluljod has one reference: "There were eleven Aesir by number
when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and slew
his brother's slayer."
Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: "Thökk will weep
dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the old man's son
alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has." Grimnismal assigns a hall to
Baldr among the Gods.
There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later writers:
the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178-1241) with all the details familiar
to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo Grammaticus (about
thirty years earlier), which makes Baldr and Höd heroes instead of
Gods, and completely alters the character of the legend by making a
rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot and cause of the
catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's depend the theories of
Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German scholars on the one hand,
and Dr. Frazer on the other.
It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship in
other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic sagas except the
late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably of Tyr,
who is without question one of the oldest. The only deities named with
any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic sagas proper are
Odin, Thor, Frey, Njörd, Frigg and Freyja. The process of choice is as
arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again, it is more likely that
the original version of the legend should have survived in Iceland than
in Denmark, which, being on the mainland, was earlier subject to
Christian and Romantic influences; and that a heathen God should, in
the two or three centuries following the establishment of Christianity in
the North, be turned into a mortal hero, than that the reverse process
should have acted at a sufficiently late date to permit of both versions
existing side by side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual

elimination of the supernatural may be found in the history of the
Volsung myth. Snorri's version is merely an amplification of that in the
Elder Edda, which, scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as
to his divinity.
The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son, is
killed by his brother Höd through a mistletoe spray; Loki is in some
way concerned