A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

oath from anything in all nature, animate or inanimate, save one only.
"A twig of mistletoe, tender and fair, grew high above the field," and
such a little thing it was, with its dainty green leaves and waxen white
berries, nestling for protection under the strong arm of a great oak, that
the goddess passed it by. Assuredly no scathe could come to Baldur the
Beautiful from a creature so insignificant, and Freya returned to Asgard
well pleased with her quest.
Then indeed was there joy and laughter amongst the gods, for each one
tried how he might slay Baldur, but neither sword nor stone, hammer
nor battle-axe could work him any ill.
Odin alone remained unsatisfied. Mounted on his eight-footed grey
steed, Sleipnir, he galloped off in haste to consult the giant prophetess
Angrbotha, who was dead and had to be followed to Niflheim, the
chilly underworld that lies far north from the world of men, and where
the sun never comes. Hel, the daughter of Loki and of Angrbotha, was
queen of this dark domain.
"There, in a bitterly cold place, she received the souls of all who died of
sickness or old age; care was her bed, hunger her dish, starvation her
knife. Her walls were high and strong, and her bolts and bars huge;
'Half blue was her skin, and half the colour of human flesh. A goddess
easy to know, and in all things very stern and grim.'"
Dasent.
In her kingdom no soul that passed away in glorious battle was
received, nor any that fought out the last of life in a fierce combat with
the angry waves of the sea. Only those who died ingloriously were her
guests.
When he had reached the realm of Hel, Odin found that a feast was
being prepared, and the couches were spread, as for an honoured guest,
with rich tapestry and with gold. For many a year had Angrbotha rested
there in peace, and it was only by chanting a magic spell and tracing
those runes which have power to raise the dead that Odin awoke her.