A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

THE DEATH OF BALDUR
"I heard a voice, that cried, 'Baldur the Beautiful Is dead, is dead!' And
through the misty air Passed like the mournful cry Of sunward sailing
cranes."
Longfellow.
Among the gods of Greece we find gods and goddesses who do
unworthy deeds, but none to act the permanent part of villain of the
play. In the mythology of the Norsemen we have a god who is wholly
treacherous and evil, ever the villain of the piece, cunning, malicious,
vindictive, and cruel--the god Loki. And as his foil, and his victim, we
have Baldur, best of all gods, most beautiful, most greatly beloved.
Baldur was the Galahad of the court of Odin the king, his father.
"My strength is of the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure."
No impure thing was to be found in his dwelling; none could impugn
his courage, yet ever he counselled peace, ever was gentle and
infinitely wise, and his beauty was as the beauty of the whitest of all
the flowers of the Northland, called after him Baldrsbrá. The god of the
Norsemen was essentially a god of battles, and we are told by great
authorities that Baldur was originally a hero who fought on the earth,
and who, in time, came to be deified. Even if it be so, it is good to think
that a race of warriors could worship one whose chief qualities were
wisdom, purity, and love.
In perfect happiness, loving and beloved, Baldur lived in Asgard with
his wife Nanna, until a night when his sleep was assailed by horrible
dreams of evil omen. In the morning he told the gods that he had
dreamed that Death, a thing till then unknown in Asgard, had come and
cruelly taken his life away. Solemnly the gods debated how this ill
happening might be averted, and Freya, his mother, fear for her best
beloved hanging heavy over her heart, took upon herself the task of
laying under oath fire and water, iron and all other metals, trees and
shrubs, birds, beasts and creeping things, to do no harm to Baldur. With
eager haste she went from place to place, nor did she fail to exact the