THE MYTH OF BALDER
[How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke
of the mistletoe.]
A deity whose life might in a sense be said to be neither in heaven nor
on earth but between the two, was the Norse Balder, the good and
beautiful god, the son of the great god Odin, and himself the wisest,
mildest, best beloved of all the immortals. The story of his death, as
it is told in the younger or prose _Edda_, runs thus. Once on a time
Balder dreamed heavy dreams which seemed to forebode his death.
Thereupon the gods held a council and resolved to make him secure
against every danger. So the goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and
water, iron and all metals, stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and
poisons, and from all four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things,
that they would not hurt Balder. When this was done Balder was deemed
invulnerable; so the gods amused themselves by setting him in their
midst, while some shot at him, others hewed at him, and others threw
stones at him. But whatever they did, nothing could hurt him; and at
this they were all glad. Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased,
and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him that the
weapons of the gods could not wound Balder, since she had made them all
swear not to hurt him. Then Loki asked, "Have all things sworn to spare
Balder?" She answered, "East of Walhalla grows a plant called mistletoe;
it seemed to me too young to swear." So Loki went and pulled the
mistletoe and took it to the assembly of the gods. There he found the
blind god Hother standing at the outside of the circle. Loki asked him,
"Why do you not shoot at Balder?" Hother answered, "Because I do not see
where he stands; besides I have no weapon." Then said Loki, "Do like the
rest and shew Balder honour, as they all do. I will shew you where he
stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig." Hother took the
mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki directed him. The mistletoe
struck Balder and pierced him through and through, and he fell down
dead. And that was the greatest misfortune that ever befell gods and
men. For a while the gods stood speechless, then they lifted up their
voices and wept bitterly. They took Balder's body and brought it to the
sea-shore. There stood Balder's ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was
the hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn
Balder's body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for a
giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the ship
such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
Then Balder's body was taken and placed on the funeral pile upon his
ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst for sorrow and she
died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with her husband, and fire was
put to it. Balder's horse, too, with all its trappings, was burned on
the pile.[256]
[Tale of Balder in the older _Edda_.]
In the older or poetic _Edda_ the tragic tale of Balder is hinted at
rather than told at length. Among the visions which the Norse Sibyl sees
and describes in the weird prophecy known as the _Voluspa_ is one of the
fatal mistletoe. "I behold," says she, "Fate looming for Balder, Woden's
son, the bloody victim. There stands the Mistletoe slender and delicate,
blooming high above the ground. Out of this shoot, so slender to look
on, there shall grow a harmful fateful shaft. Hod shall shoot it, but
Frigga in Fen-hall shall weep over the woe of Wal-hall."[257] Yet
looking far into the future the Sibyl sees a brighter vision of a new
heaven and a new earth, where the fields unsown shall yield their
increase and all sorrows shall be healed; then Balder will come back to
dwell in Odin's mansions of bliss, in a hall brighter than the sun,
shingled with gold, where the righteous shall live in joy for ever
more.[258]
[The story of Balder as related by Saxo Grammaticus.]
Writing about the end of the twelfth century, the old Danish historian
Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form which professes to
be historical. According to him, Balder and Hother were rival suitors
for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar, King of Norway. Now Balder was
a demigod and common steel could not wound his sacred body. The two
rivals encountered each other in a terrific battle, and though Odin and
Thor and the rest of the gods fought for Balder, yet was he defeated and
fled away, and Hother married the princess. Nevertheless Balder took
heart of grace and again met Hother in a stricken field. But he fared
even worse than before; for Hother dealt him a deadly wound with a magic
sword, which he had received from Miming, the Satyr of the woods; and
after lingering three days in pain Balder died of his hurt and was
buried with royal honours in a barrow.[259]
[Balder worshipped in Norway.]
Whether he was a real or merely a mythical personage, Balder was
worshipped in Norway. On one of the bays of the beautiful Sogne Fiord,
which penetrates far into the depths of the solemn Norwegian mountains,
with their sombre pine-forests and their lofty cascades dissolving into
spray before they reach the dark water of the fiord far below, Balder
had a great sanctuary. It was called Balder's Grove. A palisade enclosed
the hallowed ground, and within it stood a spacious temple with the
images of many gods, but none of them was worshipped with such devotion
as Balder. So great was the awe with which the heathen regarded the
place that no man might harm another there, nor steal his cattle, nor
defile himself with women. But women cared for the images of the gods in
the temple; they warmed them at the fire, anointed them with oil, and
dried them with cloths.[260]
[The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the
Persian hero Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi.]
It might be rash to affirm that the romantic figure of Balder was
nothing but a creation of the mythical fancy, a radiant phantom conjured
up as by a wizard's wand to glitter for a time against the gloomy
background of the stern Norwegian landscape. It may be so; yet it is
also possible that the myth was founded on the tradition of a hero,
popular and beloved in his lifetime, who long survived in the memory of
the people, gathering more and more of the marvellous about him as he
passed from generation to generation of story-tellers. At all events it
is worth while to observe that a somewhat similar story is told of
another national hero, who may well have been a real man. In his great
poem, _The Epic of Kings_, which is founded on Persian traditions, the
poet Firdusi tells us that in the combat between Rustem and Isfendiyar
the arrows of the former did no harm to his adversary, "because Zerdusht
had charmed his body against all dangers, so that it was like unto
brass." But Simurgh, the bird of God, shewed Rustem the way he should
follow in order to vanquish his redoubtable foe. He rode after her, and
they halted not till they came to the sea-shore. There she led him into
a garden, where grew a tamarisk, tall and strong, and the roots thereof
were in the ground, but the branches pierced even unto the sky. Then the
bird of God bade Rustem break from the tree a branch that was long and
slender, and fashion it into an arrow, and she said, "Only through his
eyes can Isfendiyar be wounded. If, therefore, thou wouldst slay him,
direct this arrow unto his forehead, and verily it shall not miss its
aim." Rustem did as he was bid; and when next he fought with Isfendiyar,
he shot the arrow at him, and it pierced his eye, and he died. Great was
the mourning for Isfendiyar. For the space of one year men ceased not to
lament for him, and for many years they shed bitter tears for that
arrow, and they said, "The glory of Iran hath been laid low."[261]
[The myth of Balder was perhaps acted as a magical ceremony. The two
chief incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the mistletoe and the
death and burning of the god, have perhaps their counterparts in popular
ritual.]
Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel underlying a mythical
husk in the legend of Balder, the details of the story suggest that it
belongs to that class of myths which have been dramatized in ritual, or,
to put it otherwise, which have been performed as magical ceremonies for
the sake of producing those natural effects which they describe in
figurative language. A myth is never so graphic and precise in its
details as when it is, so to speak, the book of the words which are
spoken and acted by the performers of the sacred rite. That the Norse
story of Balder was a myth of this sort will become probable if we can
prove that ceremonies resembling the incidents in the tale have been
performed by Norsemen and other European peoples. Now the main incidents
in the tale are two--first, the pulling of the mistletoe, and second,
the death and burning of the god; and both of them may perhaps be found
to have had their counterparts in yearly rites observed, whether
separately or conjointly, by people in various parts of Europe. These
rites will be described and discussed in the following chapters. We
shall begin with the annual festivals of fire and shall reserve the
pulling of the mistletoe for consideration later on.
Notes:
[256] _Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), pp.
286-288. Compare pp. 8, 34, 264. Balder's story is told in a professedly
historical form by the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in his
third book. See below, p. 103. In English the story is told at length by
Professor (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh,
1888), pp. 529 _sqq._ It is elaborately discussed by Professor F.
Knuffmann in a learned monograph, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_ (Strasburg,
1902).
[257] Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_,
i. (Oxford, 1883) p. 197. Compare _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo
Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) pp. 39 _sq._; _Die
Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 8; K.
Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung (Berlin,
1891), pp. 78 _sq._; Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_, pp. 20
_sq._ In this passage the words translated "bloody victim" (_blaupom
tivor_) and "fate looming" (_ørlog fólgen_) are somewhat uncertain and
have been variously interpreted. The word _tivor_, usually understood to
mean "god," seems to be found nowhere else. Professor H.M. Chadwick has
kindly furnished me with the following literal translation of the
passage: "I saw (or 'have seen') held in safe keeping the life of
Balder, the bloody god, Othin's son. High above the fields (i.e. the
surface of the earth) grew a mistletoe, slender and very beautiful. From
a shaft (or 'stem') which appeared slender, came a dangerous
sorrow-bringing missile (i.e. the shaft became a ... missile); Hodr
proceeded to shoot. Soon was a brother of Balder born. He, Othin's son,
proceeded to do battle when one day old. He did not wash his hands or
comb his head before he brought Balder's antagonist on to the pyre. But
Frigg in Fen-salir (i.e. the Fen-abode) lamented the trouble of
Val-holl." In translating the words _ørlog fólgen_ "held in safe keeping
the life" Professor Chadwick follows Professor F. Kauffmann's rendering
("_das Leben verwahrt_"); but he writes to me that he is not quite
confident about it, as the word _ørlog_ usually means "fate" rather than
"life." Several sentences translated by Professor Chadwick ("Soon was a
brother of Balder born ... he brought Balder's antagonist on the pyre")
are omitted by some editors and translators of the _Edda_.
[258] G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, i. 200
_sq._; _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii.
pp. 51-54; _Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock,*[8] p. 10 _sq._; K.
Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung, pp. 84 _sq._
[259] Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, ed. P.E. Müller (Copenhagen,
1839-1858), _lib._ iii. vol. i. pp. 110 _sqq._; _The First Nine Books of
the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus_, translated by Oliver Elton
(London, 1894), pp. 83-93.
[260] _Fridthjofs Saga, aus dem Alt-isländischen_, von J.C. Poestion,
(Vienna, 1879), pp. 3 _sq._, 14-17, 45-52.
[261] _The Epic of Kings, Stories retold from Firdusi_, by Helen Zimmern
(London, 1883), pp. 325-331. The parallel between Balder and Isfendiyar
was pointed out in the "Lexicon Mythologicum" appended to the _Edda
Rhythmifa seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
1828) p. 513 note, with a reference to _Schah Namech, verdeutscht von
Görres_, ii. 324, 327 _sq._ It is briefly mentioned by Dr. P. Wagler,
_Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit_, ii. Teil (Berlin, 1891), p. 40.