A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

who were to have brought tidings of his freedom were seen drawing
near, eagerly they crowded to hear the glad words, "All creatures weep,
and Baldur shall return!"
But with them they brought not hope, but despair. All things, living and
dead, had wept, save one only. A giantess who sat in a dark cave had
laughed them to scorn. With devilish merriment she mocked:
"Neither in life, nor yet in death, Gave he me gladness. Let Hel keep
her prey."
Then all knew that yet a second time had Baldur been betrayed, and
that the giantess was none other than Loki, and Loki, realising the
fierce wrath of Odin and of the other gods, fled before them, yet could
not escape his doom. And grief unspeakable was that of gods and of
men when they knew that in the chill realm of the inglorious dead
Baldur must remain until the twilight of the gods had come, until old
things had passed away, and all things had become new.
Not only the gods, but the giants of the storm and frost, and the frost
elves came to behold the last of him whom they loved. Then the pyre
was set alight, and the great vessel was launched, and glided out to sea
with its sails of flame.
"They launched the burning ship! It floated far away Over the misty sea,
Till like the sun it seemed, Sinking beneath the waves, Baldur returned
no more!"
Yet, ere he parted from his dead son, Odin stooped over him and
whispered a word in his ear. And there are those who say that as the
gods in infinite sorrow stood on the beach staring out to sea, darkness
fell, and only a fiery track on the waves showed whither he had gone
whose passing had robbed Asgard and the Earth of their most beautiful
thing, heavy as the weight of chill Death's remorseless hand would
have been their hearts, but for the knowledge of that word. They knew
that with the death of Baldur the twilight of the gods had begun, and
that by much strife and infinite suffering down through the ages the
work of their purification and hallowing must be wrought. But when all