Baldur, God of Light and Son of Odin
Baldur, in the Old Norse form Baldr, is the bright god of Germanic mythology, son of Odin and Frigg. His death by the mistletoe sprig, guided by the hand of the blind Hödr through Loki’s cunning, is among the most haunting narratives of Norse tradition.
Baldur is regarded as an emblem of beauty, purity and innocent death. In the events of Ragnarök his dying marks the beginning of the world’s end, while his return after the world-fire marks the hope of a new, healed world.
Table of Contents
Myth and Origin
Snorri Sturluson, in the «Prose Edda» (Gylfaginning 22), calls Baldur the «wisest of the Aesir, the fairest of face and the most gracious».
He is said to be so white that the brightest plant is named after him: the chamomile (Old Norse baldursbra, «Baldur’s eyelash»). His seat is Breidablik, a hall in which nothing impure is tolerated. Baldur’s wife is Nanna, his son Forseti, the god of judgement.
Scholarship sees in Baldur a central figure of Eddic mythology, whose precise religious background remains contested. Sophus Bugge (1881-89) read him as a reflex of the Christian Christ figure, a thesis that is today largely rejected.
Karl Helm (1946) interpreted him as a thunder god, Georges Dumézil (1953) as a dying and returning sovereign of the type of an Indo-European counterpart to Mitra. Jan de Vries and Rudolf Simek favour the reading of a god of light and sacrificial figure whose death marks the cosmological upheaval.
Saxo Grammaticus, in the «Gesta Danorum» (Book 3, around 1200), reports a markedly different version. Here Baldur is a demigod, son of Odin, who fights with Hödr (Hotherus) for the hand of the princess Nanna.
Baldur ultimately dies by a magical sword that belonged to a woodland woman. This euhemerised version presents Baldur as a mortal hero and shifts the death onto a chivalric contest. Scholarship sees in both versions, the Eddic and the Saxonian, reflexes of an older, pre-literary tradition.
Saxo Grammaticus’ euhemerised version in the «Gesta Danorum» (Book 3) deserves particular attention. In Saxo, Baldur is a Danish-Norwegian demigod, son of Odin, who fights with the Swedish prince Hotherus (Hödr) for the hand of the princess Nanna.
The conflict extends over several battles, and Baldur is finally killed by a magical sword that Hotherus received from a woodland woman. This version differs fundamentally from the Eddic one: there is no mistletoe motif here, no innocent sacrifice, no blind brother, but rather a conventional heroic combat over a woman.
Scholarship has, since Sophus Bugge’s «Studies» (1881-89), discussed the relationship between the two versions. Some researchers (Bugge, Olrik) saw in Saxo’s version a late distortion that reduced the pagan to the heroic.
Others (Dumézil, von See) read it as an alternative tradition that preserves an older, less sacralised Baldur myth. Today’s scholarship tends toward a multi-layered reading: both versions reflect real but distinct mythic traditions, whose relationship was not linear but complementary.
Symbols and Attributes
Baldur’s most important attribute is his radiant appearance. Snorri describes him as so bright that rays emanate from him. The plant named after him, baldursbra (Matricaria, chamomile), carries this bright symbolism into folk belief. In Denmark and Sweden the plant was used until the 19th century as protection against evil spirits.
His hall Breidablik («broadly gleaming») is mentioned in «Grimnismal» 12: «Breidablik is the seventh (hall), where Baldur has chosen his dwelling, in the land I know to be least impure».
His ship Hringhorni is held to be the largest of all ships; on it Baldur is burned after his death. His horse is mentioned in «Grimnismal» 30, though its name is not handed down.
The mistletoe sprig, with which he is killed, is his paradoxical counter-attribute. The mistletoe (Viscum album) was regarded in antiquity as sacred and is described in the «Naturalis Historia» of Pliny (Book 16, 95) as a plant cut by the Celtic druids.
In Germanic folk tradition the mistletoe sprig lives on as an ambivalent symbol: protective and deadly at once. James George Frazer made this ambiguity, in «The Golden Bough» (1890), the central symbol of his comparative mythology.
Cult and Veneration
Direct cultic evidence for Baldur is rare. Adam of Bremen does not mention him. Place names with the Baldr element are found above all in Norway (Baldrshagi, «Baldur’s grove») and are few in number compared with Thor or Odin place names.
Folke Strom read this thin trace as an indication that Baldur was primarily a literary figure of the late Eddic phase, rather than a widely venerated cult deity.
The «Friedland Saga» and other Icelandic sources mention Baldur’s death in a ritual-mythic context, but without explicit cult forms.
Snorri’s description of the funeral in Gylfaginning 49 is the most detailed account of a divine burial in the Edda: the ship is laden with wood, the giantess Hyrrokin pushes it into the water, Thor consecrates the pyre with the hammer Mjöllnir, and a dwarf is crushed because he comes too close to Thor.
This scene reads like a mythic model for historical ship burials, such as the Viking-age finds at Oseberg (834 CE) and Gokstad (late 9th century).
Régis Boyer argued, in «La religion des anciens Scandinaves» (1981), that the myth of Baldur’s death and return mirrored an initiation or seasonal ritual, probably connected with the solstice. Direct ritual evidence is lacking, but indirect traces in folk midsummer fire rituals are well attested in Scandinavia.
Important Myths
The central narrative is Baldur’s death. Snorri recounts in Gylfaginning 49: Baldur dreams of his own death. Frigg, his mother, has all beings swear an oath not to harm him.
Only the mistletoe she passes over, because she considers it too young. The Aesir amuse themselves by hurling projectiles at Baldur, which do not strike him. Loki, in a woman’s form, draws the secret from Frigg.
He fashions an arrow from mistletoe wood and gives it to the blind Hödr, guides his hand, and Hödr strikes Baldur fatally. The Aesir are speechless with grief. Hermod, Baldur’s brother, rides on Sleipnir to Hel to plead for Baldur’s return.
Hel consents, on condition that all beings weep for Baldur. All weep, save one old giantess named Thökk, behind whom Loki is concealed, who withholds her tear. Baldur remains in Hel until after the Ragnarök.
The «Voluspa» 31-33 tells the myth briefly and in condensed form. Central here above all are the stanzas on Hödr’s fate and Vali, the avenging son begotten by Odin, who kills Hödr.
This genealogy shows that Baldur’s death is not the end of the story: it generates a chain of vengeance that culminates in the Ragnarök.
The third myth is Baldur’s return after the world-fire. The «Voluspa» 62 describes how the earth rises from the sea, how Baldur and Hödr are reconciled, how a new world dawns.
This return of Baldur is one of the strongest motifs of Norse eschatology and has a long history of influence in the Christian reception of Norse mythology.
A particularly haunting episode is Hermod’s ride to Hel to free Baldur. Snorri recounts in detail in Gylfaginning 49: Hermod rides nine nights through dark, deep valleys, crosses the golden bridge Gjallarbru, whose guardian Modgudr asks him about his errand, and finally reaches Hel’s hall.
There Baldur sits upon the high seat, and Hel promises to release him if all beings mourn him.
Hermod returns with this message. The Aesir send messengers into all the worlds, and all beings weep, except one old giantess named Thökk, who sits in the cave. She says: «With dry eyes shall Thökk weep for Baldur. Let Hel keep what she has!» Snorri notes that many believe this Thökk was Loki.
Scholarship has read the Hermod episode as one of the most important pieces of evidence for the shamanistic background of Norse mythology. Hermod rides on Odin’s horse Sleipnir, the eight-legged shamanic steed, through the underworld, crosses thresholds and reaches the realm of the dead.
This mode of travel corresponds typologically to the shamanic flight as attested in many Siberian-Mongolian traditions. Mircea Eliade placed Norse mythology in this context in „Le chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l’extase“ (1951).
Relationships within the Pantheon
Baldur is the son of Odin and Frigg, father of Forseti (god of judgement), brother of Hödr (the blind one), half-brother of Thor, Hermod and many other divine sons of Odin.
His wife Nanna dies of grief when Baldur is dead, and is burned with him on the Hringhorni. Forseti, their son, inherits the seat Glitnir, a hall with a silver roof and golden pillars.
To Loki, Baldur stands in a paradoxical relationship. Loki, as a companion of the Aesir, is often associated with Baldur and the Aesir, yet becomes the instrument of his death.
The «Lokasenna» 28 shows how Loki, in his quarrel with Frigg, alludes to Baldur’s death. This antagonism is increasingly emphasised in the later tradition and culminates in the image of Loki as the destroyer of order.
To Hel, daughter of Loki and mistress of the underworld, Baldur stands as her special guest. Hermod must ride nine nights through dark valleys to reach Hel’s hall. There she receives him upon the high seat, with Baldur at her side. This scene is among the most haunting depictions of the Eddic underworld.
Reception and Influence
In medieval Christian reception, Baldur was read early on as a prefiguration of Christ. Sophus Bugge developed this thesis in detail in «Studies on the Origin of the Norse Tales of Gods and Heroes» (1881-89).
Today the Christ thesis is regarded as overdrawn, though some parallels (dying and returning god, innocent sacrifice, cosmic consequences) are nonetheless typologically acknowledged.
Jacob Grimm devoted a chapter of his own to Baldur in the «German Mythology» (1835). He saw in him the god of light par excellence. In the 19th century Baldur became popular in Norse Romanticism and painting.
Adam Öhlenschläger’s «Baldur hin gode» (1808) is a dramatic treatment of the material. In the national-romantic literature of Sweden and Norway, too, Baldur appears as an emblem of purity and tragic beauty.
Richard Wagner did not incorporate Baldur into the «Ring of the Nibelung», probably because the material seemed less heroic and conflict-laden than the stories of Wotan and Siegfried.
In the 20th century Baldur became central to comparative mythology, above all through James George Frazer’s «The Golden Bough» (12 vols., 1890-1915), where the mistletoe myth became the starting point of a far-reaching theory of dying and resurrecting gods.
Religious-Studies Classification
In comparative mythology Baldur is assigned to the type of the «dying and returning god», alongside Adonis, Tammuz, Osiris and Christ.
This typological classification was popularised by Frazer and systematised by later scholars such as Mircea Eliade («Le mythe de l’eternel retour», 1949). Criticism came from Jonathan Z. Smith («Drudgery Divine», 1990), who criticised the typological equation as too sweeping.
Georges Dumézil sought, in «Loki» (1948) and «Mythe et epopée» (1968-73), to place Baldur within the Indo-European three-functions model. Baldur, he argued, is the pure, undivided sovereign whose death shakes the order.
This reading was taken up and refined by Edgar Polomé and Jens Peter Schjodt. Polomé sees in Baldur the aspect of the bodily perfection of sovereignty, in contrast to Odin (magical-spiritual) and Tyr (juridical).
The mistletoe symbolism was compared with Celtic parallels by Celtologist and Indo-Europeanist scholars such as Marie-Louise Sjöstedt in «Dieux et heros des Celtes» (1940). In both traditions the mistletoe appears as a sacred-paradoxical plant that can bring both healing and death.
Frazer’s thesis of the dying and returning god has undergone differentiations in more recent scholarship. Jonathan Z. Smith showed in «Drudgery Divine» (1990) that the typological equation of Baldur, Christ, Adonis, Osiris and Tammuz conceals more differences than commonalities.
Christ is a messianic figure of salvation, Adonis a vegetative subject of the mysteries of love, Osiris a cosmogonic king, Tammuz an agrarian vegetation demon. Baldur does not fit unambiguously into these series. His specificity lies in the combination of cosmological harbinger of the Ragnarök and symbol of hope for the renewal after the downfall.
In comparative Indo-European research, Baldur has repeatedly been compared with the Indian Tvashtar, the Celtic Lug and the Lithuanian Velinas. These comparisons are typological and not genetically compelling. The precise Indo-European provenance of the Baldur figure remains open.
Edgar Polomé argued, in «Old Norse Religious Terminology» (1969) and in later essays, that Baldur was a genuinely Norse creation of the late Viking age, one that resonates with older Indo-European elements without being their direct heir.
Sources and Further Reading
Primary sources: «Prose Edda» (Snorri Sturluson, around 1220), «Voluspa» and «Grimnismal» (Poetic Edda, Codex Regius), «Baldrs draumar» (Poetic Edda), «Gesta Danorum» Book 3 (Saxo Grammaticus, around 1200). Skaldic poems in Finnur Jonsson «Den norsk-islandske Skjaldedigtning» (1912-15).
Secondary literature: Jan de Vries «Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte» (1956/57), Rudolf Simek «Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie» (3rd ed. 2006), Georges Dumézil «Loki» (1948), James George Frazer «The Golden Bough» (1890-1915), Sophus Bugge «Studien über die Entstehung der nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen» (1881-89), Karl Helm «Wodan» (1946), Régis Boyer «La religion des anciens Scandinaves» (1981), Margaret Clunies Ross «Prolonged Echoes» (1994/98), Jens Peter Schjodt «Initiation between Two Worlds» (2008).
