IN all the city of Asgard there was no god so beautiful or so dearly loved as Balder. Wherever he went it was like the coming of sunshine, and every grief fled away before the brightness of his presence. In all his happy life he had never known a moment’s sadness, and the gods believed that none could ever come to him. So beautiful and joyous and free from care was Balder that he seemed to the gods to be the one among them who could surely never share in the final doom which they knew awaited all the dwellers in Asgard.

The days passed happily for Balder,[32] and no thought of sorrow crossed his untroubled mind, until one night he had a dream which filled him with strange fear. When the gods met again in council he told them his dream, and begged them to interpret its meaning. They tried to laugh and banish his fears, but at heart they felt that an evil day had come. Over Asgard now hung a dark shadow which foreboded the coming sorrow, for the dream spoke of approaching evil, even of death. So full of sadness did the gods become at the thought of losing Balder, that they cared no longer to join in their accustomed games or to make merry while some tragic fate might be overshadowing the bright and joyous youth.

Odin could not rest until he learned the truth about his favourite son; so he mounted Sleipnir and rode down to the dark region where the goddess Hel ruled over her innumerable dead. In those silent halls[33] he found a table spread, and dishes of gold and silver were set out as if for some honoured guest. At the head of the table was one vacant seat; and when Odin saw this, his heart sank with fear, for he knew too well for whom the chair was waiting. Hoping against hope, in spite of this sinister sight, Odin returned to the earth and sought out a certain wood where a famous prophetess had long ago been buried. Over her grave he uttered some mystic words that roused the sleeper from her age-long rest, and at last she spoke in a faint, far-off voice. “Who is it that comes to break my sleep?”

And Odin answered, “I am Voltam, and I have come to ask why the table is so richly spread in Helheim and for whom the vacant chair stands waiting.” Thus Odin spoke, for he feared to tell her his name.

A silence fell over the dim old forest, and for a moment Odin feared that his spells could not compel the dead to speak. But at last a faint voice whispered, “It is for the shining Balder that Hel and all her hosts are waiting.”

“Who then shall send the Beloved of the gods to Helheim?” asked Odin, and he waited fearfully for the answer.

“Blind HÖder shall slay him, for so it has been written, and so it shall be,” came the words which the anxious listener dreaded and yet waited to hear.

“And who shall avenge the death of Balder?” he asked sorrowfully. For a long time no answer came; then the voice, which sounded still farther away, cried mournfully:—

“Keep me no longer from my well-earned rest. For ages upon ages I have lain here, and the rain and snow have beat upon my head and the winds have sung their songs in my ears. Depart thou hence and leave me to my sleep.”

So Odin left the forest, for he knew that the dead would speak no more; and slowly and sorrowfully he returned to Asgard. He did not tell the gods of his visit to Helheim; but kept to himself the sad knowledge he had gained.

Meantime the goddess Frigga determined to avert, if possible, the unknown danger that threatened her son; so she went out one day from her palace and wandered over the whole earth. And as she went she begged everything which she met to swear by a solemn oath never to hurt Balder. Fire, water, rocks, trees, iron, brass, birds and beasts,—all were bound by a vow to do no harm to him; and everything on earth gave the promise gladly, for all the world loved the bright and joyous Balder. As Frigga was returning home, she saw just outside the gates of Asgard a small plant called the mistletoe; but it looked so harmless that she passed it by without asking for the promise, and hurried on to tell Odin of the success of her journey.

When the gods heard how everything had sworn never to hurt Balder, there was gladness again among them. But Odin, knowing the decree of the Norns, could not rejoice with the rest; though in the general happiness that reigned now in Asgard, no one marked his sadness. Then, to prove whether all the things which had given the promise would really keep their word to Frigga, the gods placed the youth as a target before them, and hurled at him huge stones and sharp-pointed spears and the weapons which they used in battle; but each missile turned aside, and refused to hurt the shining Balder. Even the deadly battle-axes fell harmless at his feet. Now Loki, who always hated everything beautiful, and who was jealous of Balder because the gods loved him, stood by watching the game. His heart was full of bitterness and envy, and he hated the glorious youth who could be so confident and secure in the love which all the world had owned for him. So he determined to work some harm to Balder.

One day a strange old woman came to the palace of Frigga and asked to have speech with her. The goddess was sitting with her maidens spinning, and when the old woman was admitted to her presence, she spoke to her kindly and asked the object of her visit.

“I have come, lady,” said the old woman, who was really Loki in disguise, “to learn what is going on here in Asgard that the shouts of joy reach even to the earth. I hear laughter and cheering in the court where the gods are at their games. Tell me, what does it mean?” Then Frigga smiled happily and said, “It means that the gods are hurling their battle-axes at Balder and trying to wound him, but he stands before them unhurt, for everything on earth has sworn to me to do him no harm.”

“Has everything indeed made you this promise?” asked Loki.

“Yes,” answered Frigga; “everything except a little plant called the mistletoe, and this looked so small and weak that I did not ask it to promise.”

“And does this mistletoe grow far from here?” continued the pretended old woman.

“Just at the gates of Asgard,” answered Frigga. And Loki, having learned what he wished, left the palace exulting in the ease with which he had deceived the unsuspecting goddess. Laying aside his disguise, he sought the place where the mistletoe grew, and cutting off a branch, he shaped it into an arrow. Then he went to join the gods in their sport.

Just outside the circle of the players stood HÖder, the brother of Balder, silent and alone, for he was blind and could not share in the games. Going up to him, Loki said,—

“Why do you not join in the sport, HÖder, and throw some missile at the wonderful Balder who now bears a charmed life?”

“Because I cannot see where he is standing,” answered HÖder, “and besides, I have no weapon to throw.”

“If that is all,” said Loki, “come with me and I will give you an arrow and help you shoot it.” So he led HÖder forward, and the blind god followed him willingly, for he dreamed of no evil.

Then Loki put the arrow into his hand and directed his aim so well that the fatal shaft flew straight to Balder’s heart, and in a moment the beautiful god lay dead.

There was mourning now in Asgard, and over all the world. The sun no longer shone with its accustomed brightness; the birds stopped their singing, and the flowers drooped their heads; even the beasts felt the sadness that lay upon the earth, and crouched silent in their dens. Everything that loved the shining Balder now wept and mourned for him. Then the gods arrayed his body in the finest cloth of gold, and brought it down to the sea, where Balder’s ship[34] lay close to the water’s edge. Very sadly they laid the body upon its deck, and heaped around the beloved form rings and chains of finest gold, jewels and weapons such as warriors love. When Nanna, Balder’s wife, saw the body wrapped in readiness for burning, her heart broke from her great grief, and the gods laid her, dead, beside her husband.

Then they lit the funeral fires with a thorn-twig, which is the emblem of sleep; and took their last look at the dead Balder as he lay upon the burning pyre. Odin, stepping forward, whispered in the unhearing ear of his son; but what he said no one ever knew.

When they tried to launch the ship, they found to their dismay that it was too heavily laden for their united efforts. So they sent for the mountain-giantess Hyrroken—who had ever been friendly to the people of Asgard—and begged her to grant this last service to the beloved of the gods. The giantess came, riding on a fierce wolf, with twisted snakes in her hands for reins. She gladly offered her help to the gods, and putting her shoulder to the prow, she gave it a mighty shove which sent the burning ship far out from the shore.

The flames rose higher and higher as the vessel drifted out toward the sea, bearing with it the light and joy of Asgard. A silence fell on all the watchers, and great sorrow filled their hearts. All the world seemed under a shadow, and in the solemn stillness no sound was heard but the roaring of the flames on the burning ship. The gods stood upon the shore watching the funeral pyre, and, mingled with their sadness, was a dread foreboding of evil; for outside the ring of the shining ones of Asgard was another group of watchers—the frost-giants—who seemed to be looking on in mockery at the solemn rites, and now and then drew nearer, their tall forms looming up grim and threatening and terrible.

Then the sea and sky seemed to burst into one mass of glowing flame and a wonderful golden light spread over the earth as the fire upon the slowly moving ship burned each moment more brightly. Thus the vessel drifted westward toward the sea, and the gods knew that Balder had passed forever from their sight.

One by one they returned sadly to Asgard; but Odin could not give up his son without one last effort to reclaim him. He determined to go himself to Helheim, and offer a ransom to the goddess Hel if she would give Balder back to him. Meantime poor blind HÖder had been mourning over the great evil which he had innocently wrought, and he wished with all the fervor of his loving heart that he could bring Balder back to Asgard. Sadly he sought the palace of his mother Frigga, and asked her whether he might not go to Helheim and offer his life to the dread goddess in exchange for Balder’s. “The road is long and hard to find,” said Frigga, “and what could a blind god do in the path where the best traveller would lose his way? Go back to your own dwelling, and send for Hermod, our swift messenger. He loved the shining Balder and now mourns for him. Bid him ride to Helheim.”

HÖder did as his mother commanded, and found Hermod only too willing to take the fearful journey for the sake of Balder. Odin gave him his own horse Sleipnir, who up to this time had never allowed another rider to mount him. Nine days and nights Hermod rode through the earth in darkness so thick that his horse could not see where to step. It was a black and steep and fearful road down to Helheim, and only on Odin’s horse could the journey have been made. On the tenth morning he came to the golden bridge that spanned the river GiÖll; and here a maiden,[35] pale and sorrowful, kept guard. She halted Hermod as he rode across the bridge, and said:—

“Who are you, and what do you seek here among the dead? Yesterday five hands of men rode across the bridge, but they did not shake it as you alone have done. Your face is not as the face of the dead. Why do you come here? It is no place for the living.”

Then Hermod asked if she had seen the shining Balder pass over her bridge; and the maiden answered,—

“He has crossed it already, and has gone to the dark hall where the feast is now spread.”

So Hermod rode on until he reached Hel’s gloomy palace and came face to face with the terrible queen who ruled over the kingdom of the dead. Hermod trembled with fear as he looked about him, but his love for Balder gave him courage, and he stepped up boldly before the goddess, saying:—

“I have come to beg a boon of thee, O Hel. Your land is full without the shining Balder, and Asgard is empty and lonely since he has gone. Every heart mourns for him, and every eye is filled with tears. Give him back to us.”

Slowly and sternly Hel replied: “Is there indeed no dry eye upon the earth? If it be true as thou sayest, that everything weeps for Balder, he shall return to Asgard; but if there is one who will not weep, he shall stay forever in Helheim.”

Then Hermod hurried with the message back to Asgard, and when Odin heard the answer Hel had made, he gave the command, and everything upon the earth wept and mourned for Balder. Throughout the whole world arose the sound of bitter wailing; and not a single eye remained undimmed by tears. But among the mourners in Asgard there was one old woman[36] whom Odin spied standing apart and shedding no tear.

“Weep,” he cried, “weep for Balder that he may return.”

“Nay,” replied the old woman, “I will not weep. He has done naught for me that I should mourn him. Let him stay in Helheim.” Then with a mocking laugh she hurried away, and Odin knew that it was Loki.

So Balder never came back to Asgard.