Balder was the son of Odin with his wife Frigg, and he seems to have been the beloved prince of Asgard in the Norse pantheon, rather than Thor. But despite being portrayed as the most beloved of all the gods, he is most famous for his death. Balder’s death is one of the key events that makes Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse, and the death of all the gods, inevitable.
Norse Gods of Light, Joy, and Purity
Balder, also called Baldr or Baldur, was the Norse god of light, joy, and purity. He is described in Norse mythology as the most beloved of all the gods. He is the son of Odin, the All-Father and the leader of the Aesir gods, and his wife Frigg, a goddess of marriage and wifely duties. He seems to be the only son that Odin fathered on his wife, with the rest of his children, including Thor, being fathered on a variety of different giantesses.
Balder himself was married to the goddess Nanna, but nothing is known about her aside from her relationship with Balder. She does seem to have been a fully-fledged goddess, as she is consistently listed among the important Norse goddesses, but one story also describes her as the daughter of the human King Gevar. Balder had to compete for her affection with a human man named Hodr, and when Nanna chose the latter, Balder fell into a deep depression. How he eventually changed her mind and married her does not survive.
Together they have a son called Forseti, the Norse god of justice. He is described as extremely peaceful and engaging in meditation. Forseti lives in Asgard in Glitnir, a beautiful hall with gold pillars and a shining silver roof. The entire building radiates with light. This also served as a court of justice for the gods, and Forseti acted as the divine law speaker.
Balder also had a beautiful hall in Asgard called Breidablik, which means “broad gleaming”. It is said to be the most beautiful place in the Norse universe, and nothing impure can enter.
Balder is described by the 13th-century Christian Icelandic history Snorri Sturluson as a tranquil and peaceful character in his Prose Edda. He says that Balder is noble and handsome and that light emanates from his body. , He is the fairest of the gods, and that even flowers bow before his beauty. This may be a reflection of his relationship with Forseti, and prepare him for his role as a martyr.
But the medieval Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus said that Balder was always up for a fight, not unlike his half-brother Thor. In the Lokasenna, when Loki is insulting all the gods at dinner, Frigg tells him that he would not dare speak to them in that way if she had a living son as bold as Balder. It is worth noting that Thor was not present during the insults, and it was when he turned up that Loki decided to flee.
The name Baldr also suggests the latter. It is derived from the Old Norse word “bal”, which means fire. It is also linked with the Norse word “baldur”, which is an honorific title given to lords. This may suggest that he was considered Odin’s heir before his death. However, there is no evidence that he was one of the gods honored by the Vikings in rituals and sacrifices.
Balder the Invincible
According to Norse mythology, Balder was invincible. The story recorded in the Prose Edda starts with Balder having prophetic dreams about his own death. His mother Frigg was known to be a seeress who saw everything but never told anyone what she saw, and he may have heard his mother’s abilities. He also confided in Frigg about the nature of his dreams.
Determined to protect her son, Frigg decided to go around to everything in existence and secure a promise that they would never hurt her son or participate in hurting him. Therefore, steel agreed not to cut him, stone agreed not to crush him, and fire agreed not to burn him. In the end, Balder was invincible.
Since nothing could hurt Balder, you could throw a spear at him and it would just bounce off harmlessly. The gods turned this into a game, and would often throw things at the young god and laugh at the effects.
Loki was determined to learn if Balder truly was invincible or if he had any weaknesses. To learn, he disguised himself as a woman and entered into Frigg’s circle of maids. He spent time building Frigg’s trust until she felt safe to confide in him in his guise as an older woman. Eventually, Loki asked Frigg if Balder truly was invincible, and Frigg admitted that she might have forgotten to garner the promise from the humble mistletoe plant, but she did not think it was a problem since it was such a young and harmless plant.
Loki took this information and fashioned a dart from a twig of mistletoe. He then joined the gods who were engaged in their game of throwing things at Balder. At the party, Loki approached Hodr, a blind god described as a brother of Balder. Loki asked Hodr why he wasn’t joining in the fun. Hodr explained that it was because he could not see. Loki seemed to want to help Hodr, so he gave him the dart and told him where to aim it. To the surprise of everyone, Balder died.
Because Balder did not die in battle, he did not earn a place in Valhalla, Odin’s hall for brave fallen warriors in Asgard. Instead, he was sent to Helheim, the underworld in Niflheim overseen by Hel, a daughter of Loki. Despite Odin being a god of death who chose the fallen warriors to dwell in Valhalla, he had no power over Helheim and could not retrieve his son.
The gods sent Hermod, often considered the Norse equivalent of Mercury, down to Helheim on Odin’s eight-legged steed Sleipnir. He tried to negotiate with Hel to release Balder, explaining that Balder was the most beloved being in existence, and therefore should be returned to the world. Hel said that she would return Balder, on the condition that they prove his beloved status. She wanted everything in existence to weep for Balder.
The world began to weep for the god, but one witch, called Thokk, refused to shed a single tear. While it is not specifically stated anywhere, it is assumed that the witch was Loki in disguise and that he actively ensured that Balder could not return from Helheim.
The Death of Balder and Ragnarok
The aftermath of Balder’s death was a bloody time in Asgard. Odin fathered a son called Vali on a giantess called Rindr who grew to adulthood in a single day for the specific purpose of killing Hodr, despite the fact that he was an innocent patsy in the death of Balder. He joined Balder in Helheim.
Balder’s body was ceremonially burned on his ship Hringhorni, and the grieving gods participated in the funeral procession. His wife Nanna either died of grief and was burned with her husband, or she threw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.
Odin was in so much grief that he ceased to bathe and comb his hair for a while. This was considered taboo among the Vikings and a source of great shame.
Loki continued to live in Asgard among the gods for a period after his death, but tensions between the giant and the gods grew. But, it seemed as though the gods could do nothing as a result of the blood brotherhood oath between Odin and Loki. Eventually, the tension broke at a divine banquet in a story recounted in the Lokasenna, recorded in the Poetic Edda.
The gods were having a feast, and Loki wasn’t invited, but he turned up anyway. Angry with Loki, the gods initially wanted to turn him away. But Loki reminded Odin of their pact, and Odin said that he should be allowed to stay. Loki then insults everyone revealing many uncomfortable truths about the gods. He claims that Idun, who is married to Bragi, lies with the man who killed her brother and accuses Sif of being unfaithful to Thor with Loki himself.
Eventually, the gods could no longer accept Loki’s presence and behavior. He sensed the change in atmosphere, and aware of the presence of Thor, Loki fled. He left Asgard and made his way to a distant mountain where he built a house with four doors, so he could observe people approaching from every direction. During the day, he shapeshifted into a fish and hid under a nearby waterfall. At night, he sat by the fire and made fishing nets to catch food to eat.
Odin had a seat in Asgard from which he could look out over the Norse cosmos, so he saw Loki and the gods went after him. When Loki saw the gods approaching, he hid in the stream in the form of a salmon. The gods realized what had happened and made their own net to fish for Loki. After several failed attempts, they managed to catch the trickster.
The gods brought Loki to a cave, along with the two sons he shared with his Aesir wife Sigyn. They transformed one of his sons into a wolf. He lost his mind, tore his other brother to shreds, and ran off. The gods then used the entrails of Loki’s other son to tie him to two rocks. They retrieved a venomous snake and hung it over Loki’s head to drip venom painfully onto his skin.
Loki’s Aesir wife Sigyn tries to protect him from some of the pain, by catching the venom in a bowl. But every so often she must leave to empty the bowl. Loki’s body convulses with the pain, causing earthquakes. Loki will only break his chains at Ragnarök to lead the charge of giants against the gods. The ensuing battle will destroy all of existence.
At Ragnarök, the dead of Helheim will also join the battle against the gods. Hel will sail out of Helheim with the unworthy dead, on boats made from the fingernails and toenails of the dead. This will also allow Balder to escape Helheim and rejoin the Aesir.
The Cause of Ragnarok
The death of Balder is sometimes considered to be the cause of Ragnarok because it causes the break between Loki and the gods, which is necessary for the final battle. But why was Loki so determined to learn whether Balder had a weakness? Could it be because the gods had already persecuted his own children?
Loki had three children with the giantess Angrboda, a great wolf called Fenrir, a serpent called Jormungandr, and a half-living and half-dead giantess called Hel. When the gods learned of the offspring of such a monstrous union, they decided to place each somewhere in the universe where they could do the least harm.
They tricked Fenrir into allowing himself to be chained up by a magical chain on a deserted island. They threw Jormungandr into the waters surrounding Midgard. There, the serpent grew to such an enormous size that he could encircle the entire world and hold his own tail in his mouth. Hel was banished to Niflheim to oversee the underworld there, which became known as Helheim in her honor. While she was given power, she was also banished. Loki was likely angered by the treatment of his children and targeted Balder out of revenge.
That children were involved in the conflict is also reflected in the fact that the gods decided to kill Loki’s two children with Sigyn as a further part of his punishment. Loki’s three children with Angrboda all join Loki in attacking the gods at Ragnarok to get their revenge. Fenrir devours Odin himself before being killed by another of Odin’s sons, Vali. Thor and Jormungandr fight to the death. Thor will kill the serpent, but Jormungandr will spew so much venom into Thor that he too will die within minutes. While we do not know what happens to Hel, her guard dog Garm fights to the death with Tyr. The destruction caused by these battles will be so great that the world will be destroyed and sink back into the waters of chaos.
This reading of the events suggests that it was not the death of Balder, but the gods’ treatment of Loki’s children that set the events that would lead to Ragnarok into motion. Therefore the gods were responsible for their own destruction as a result of the prejudice and cruelty.
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