Towards the Baldur Myth - Germanic Mythology

with the sun‘s path, with the horse and the well, and who was ultimately killed. It should
not be overlooked that the ballad speaks not only of one horse, but of five. Among these
five, there is one, a dapple-gray, that is ridden by Steffan himself. Of the four others, it is
said that ―they well earned their keep‖; thus they presumably have been used as riding
horses, but by which horsemen or horsewomen it is not said. Therefore it has freely been
assumed that Steffan rode them all in turn, although the ballad makes only the dapplegray
the riding horse of ―Steffan himself.‖ It merits notice that the four others are divided
into two pairs: a red pair and a white pair. It ought also be noted that the Merseburg
Charm, in which Odin follows Phol-Baldur on his journey ―into the wood,‖ also allows
them to be accompanied by four riders, which, like the red and the white horses in the
Ballad of Steffan, are divided into two pairs: the pair of sisters Sunna and Sinhtgunt, and
the pair of sisters Frigg and Fulla. One pair of horses is red colored, the other white.
Sunna is a sun-dis, as her name states, and the color of the sun in our mythic sources is
designated as red. The sun is called röðull, Alfröðull and rauðbrik, red-disk. Baldur is
―the red-disk‘s powerful promoter‖ rauðbrikar ríkr rækir (Investigations into Germanic
Mythology, Volume 1, no. 53). 59 The color of the moon, when it rises, is more or less
white. Sunna‘s sister, Sinthgunt, ―the battle-maiden who fares night after night,‖ is a
moon-dis. Here a connection between the Merseburg Charm and the mythic tradition that
forms the basis of the Ballad of Steffan is revealed which deserves to be recognized.
The ―wood‖ to which Odin, accompanied by Baldur and his four mounted femaleattendants,
proceeds is also spoken of in a Nordic mythic source. It is the forest of the
Varns, Varna viðr (Grímnismál 39), located beneath the western horizon and the
destination for the sun and the moon‘s journey over the heavens (Investigations into
Germanic Mythology, Volume 1, no. 53). 60 Grímnismál says that when the wolf Sköll,
Hati‘s relative, pursues the sun, he persists until he reaches the Varns‘ wood. There
dwells Billing, ruler of the Varns (Billing veold Vernum, Widsith, Codex Exon. 22). There
his Varns ―with burning lights and lit torches‖ watch over ―the sun-glittering maiden‖ as
she rests after her journey (Hávamál 100).
If we now compile the details that the Ballad of Steffan tells us about Stephanus
with what Acta Sanctorum relates about him, we gather the following mythic elements
concerning him:
1) Stephanus makes his journey ―after the sun‘s path‖ (the story from
Helsingland). Baldur is ―the sun-disk‘s powerful promoter.‖
2) Stephanus is a rider and a keeper of horses (the Latin formula about Michael,
Peter, and Stephanus, and the Ballad of Steffan). Baldur is mentioned as a rider in
Lokasenna, the Danish folk-history, the Merseburg Charm, and German medieval poetry.
Compare the designation Vigg-Baldr, horse-Baldur. Yama, who is his Proto-Indo-
European prototype, sent the horse to the gods and mankind (see above).
59 While the sun was seen as red, this interpretation is faulty. Taken from a verse in Einar Skálaglamm‘s
Vellekla, the passage reads: Og herþarfir hverfa,/ Hlakkar móts, til blóta,/rauðbríkar fremst rækir/ ríkur,
ásmegir, slíku./Nú grær jörð sem áðan, etc. Rather than identifying Baldur as the ―promoter of the reddisk,‖
the accepted modern reading takes Hakon, the poem‘s subject, as "the attender of the red shield of
Hlökk's meeting" i.e. ―the mighty shield-bearer.‖
60 Most English translators do not interpret varna as a proper name, and instead translate the phrase varna
viðr as ―protecting wood.‖ However, since both translations are possible, Rydberg‘s interpretation and
reasoning here are sound. The passage from Widsith lends weight to taking Varn as a proper name.