The Edda, Volume 1 | Page 7

in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to
the Gods; but it is on Höd that his death is avenged. He is burnt on a
pyre (Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the
Viking age; Hyndluljod substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent
from the great fight at Ragnarök, but _Völuspa_ adds that he will return
afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with
the hierarchy of the Aesir seems external only, since Baldr has no
apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej, Tyr
and Loki; this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe
is an original feature of it or not, and on this point there can be little
real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be killed by his
own sword, which was therefore disguised by enchantment and used
against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood this to mean a
mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched and romantic, and crumbles at a touch.
For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no mistletoe, why should they
introduce it into a story to which it did not belong? They might
preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly invent it. Granting this,
the mistletoe becomes the central point of the legend. The older
mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth, overlooked the fact that
since any weapon would have done to kill the God with, the mistletoe
must have some special significance; and if it is a genuine part of the
story, as we have no reason to doubt, it will be hard to overturn Dr.
Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth is a relic of tree-worship and the
ritual sacrifice of the God, Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is
contained in the mistletoe.
The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri (such as the
confusion between the parts played by Höd and Loki, and the

unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Höd's aim) are
sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs of
antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten often
survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to make it
consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally only two
actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that Loki's part is
later than Höd's, for he really belongs to the Valhall and Ragnarök
myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident of the oath
extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which occurs in
Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably invented
to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in the
legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the part of
avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned as a God,
his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a part of that
literary development by which real responsibility for the murder was
transferred from Höd to Loki.
Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a God
in Grimnismal. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's, of
whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred tree
would naturally be the seat of judgment.
* * * * *
_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njörd and his son and
daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given of
their presence in Asgard:
(1) In Vafthrudnismal, Odin asks:
"Whence came Njörd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
of the Aesir."
Vafthrudni. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
home to the wise Wanes."

(2) There is an allusion in _Völuspa_ to the war which caused the
giving of hostages:
"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken was
the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could tread the
fields of war."
(3) Loki taunts Njörd with his position, in _Lokasenna_:
"Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods...."
_Njörd_. "This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage
to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is thought the
best of the Aesir."
Loki. "Stay, Njörd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer: thy son is
thine own sister's