THE DEATH OF BALDER.
50. Then asked Ganglere: Have there happened any other remarkable things
among the asas? A great deed it was, forsooth, that Thor wrought on this
journey. Har answered: Yes, indeed, there are tidings to be told that
seemed of far greater importance to the asas. The beginning of this tale
is, that Balder dreamed dreams great and dangerous to his life. When he
told these dreams to the asas they took counsel together, and it was
decided that they should seek peace for Balder against all kinds of
harm. So Frigg exacted an oath from fire, water, iron and all kinds of
metal, stones, earth, trees, sicknesses, beasts, birds and creeping
things, that they should not hurt Balder. When this was done and made
known, it became the pastime of Balder and the asas that he should stand
up at their meetings while some of them should shoot at him, others
should hew at him, while others should throw stones at him; but no
matter what they did, no harm came to him, and this seemed to all a
great honor. When Loke, Laufey’s son, saw this, it displeased him very
much that Balder was not scathed. So he went to Frigg, in Fensal, having
taken on himself the likeness of a woman. Frigg asked this woman whether
she knew what the asas were doing at their meeting. She answered that
all were shooting at Balder, but that he was not scathed thereby. Then
said Frigg: Neither weapon nor tree can hurt Balder, I have taken an
oath from them all. Then asked the woman: Have all things taken an oath
to spare Balder? Frigg answered: West of Valhal there grows a little
shrub that is called the mistletoe, that seemed to me too young to exact
an oath from. Then the woman suddenly disappeared. Loke went and pulled
up the mistletoe and proceeded to the meeting. Hoder stood far to one
side in the ring of men, because he was blind. Loke addressed himself to
him, and asked: Why do you not shoot at Balder? He answered: Because I
do not see where he is, and furthermore I have no weapons. Then said
Loke: Do like the others and show honor to Balder; I will show you where
he stands; shoot at him with this wand. Hoder took the mistletoe and
shot at Balder under the guidance of Loke. The dart pierced him and he
fell dead to the ground. This is the greatest misfortune that has ever
happened to gods and men. When Balder had fallen, the asas were struck
speechless with horror, and their hands failed them to lay hold of the
corpse. One looked at the other, and all were of one mind toward him who
had done the deed, but being assembled in a holy peace-stead, no one
could take vengeance. When the asas at length tried to speak, the
wailing so choked their voices that one could not describe to the other
his sorrow. Odin took this misfortune most to heart, since he best
comprehended how great a loss and injury the fall of Balder was to the
asas. When the gods came to their senses, Frigg spoke and asked who
there might be among the asas who desired to win all her love and good
will by riding the way to Hel and trying to find Balder, and offering
Hel a ransom if she would allow Balder to return home again to Asgard.
But he is called Hermod, the Nimble, Odin’s swain, who undertook this
journey. Odin’s steed, Sleipner, was led forth. Hermod mounted him and
galloped away.
51. The asas took the corpse of Balder and brought it to the sea-shore.
Hringhorn was the name of Balder’s ship, and it was the largest of all
ships. The gods wanted to launch it and make Balder’s bale-fire thereon,
but they could not move it. Then they sent to Jotunheim after the
giantess whose name is Hyrrokken. She came riding on a wolf, and had
twisted serpents for reins. When she alighted, Odin appointed four
berserks to take care of her steed, but they were unable to hold him
except by throwing him down on the ground. Hyrrokken went to the prow
and launched the ship with one single push, but the motion was so
violent that fire sprang from the underlaid rollers and all the earth
shook. Then Thor became wroth, grasped his hammer, and would forthwith
have crushed her skull, had not all the gods asked peace for her.
Balder’s corpse was borne out on the ship; and when his wife, Nanna,
daughter of Nep, saw this, her heart was broken with grief and she died.
She was borne to the funeral-pile and cast on the fire. Thor stood by
and hallowed the pile with Mjolner. Before his feet ran a dwarf, whose
name is Lit. Him Thor kicked with his foot and dashed him into the fire,
and he, too, was burned. But this funeral-pile was attended by many
kinds of folk. First of all came Odin, accompanied by Frigg and the
valkyries and his ravens. Frey came riding in his chariot drawn by the
boar called Gullinburste or Slidrugtanne. Heimdal rode his steed
Gulltop, and Freyja drove her cats. There was a large number of
frost-giants and mountain-giants. Odin laid on the funeral-pile his gold
ring, Draupner, which had the property of producing, every ninth night,
eight gold rings of equal weight. Balder’s horse, fully caparisoned, was
led to his master’s pile.
52. But of Hermod it is to be told that he rode nine nights through deep
and dark valleys, and did not see light until he came to the
Gjallar-river and rode on the Gjallar-bridge, which is thatched with
shining gold. Modgud is the name of the may who guards the bridge. She
asked him for his name, and of what kin he was, saying that the day
before there rode five fylkes (kingdoms, bands) of dead men over the
bridge; but she added, it does not shake less under you alone, and you
do not have the hue of dead men. Why do you ride the way to Hel? He
answered: I am to ride to Hel to find Balder. Have you seen him pass
this way? She answered that Balder had ridden over the Gjallar-bridge;
adding: But downward and northward lies the way to Hel. Then Hermod rode
on till he came to Hel’s gate. He alighted from his horse, drew the
girths tighter, remounted him, clapped the spurs into him, and the horse
leaped over the gate with so much force that he never touched it.
Thereupon Hermod proceeded to the hall and alighted from his steed. He
went in, and saw there sitting on the foremost seat his brother Balder.
He tarried there over night. In the morning he asked Hel whether Balder
might ride home with him, and told how great weeping there was among the
asas. But Hel replied that it should now be tried whether Balder was so
much beloved as was said. If all things, said she, both quick and dead,
will weep for him, then he shall go back to the asas, but if anything
refuses to shed tears, then he shall remain with Hel. Hermod arose, and
Balder accompanied him out of the hall. He took the ring Draupner and
sent it as a keepsake to Odin. Nanna sent Frigg a kerchief and other
gifts, and to Fulla she sent a ring. Thereupon Hermod rode back and came
to Asgard, where he reported the tidings he had seen and heard.
53. Then the asas sent messengers over all the world, praying that
Balder might be wept out of Hel’s power. All things did so,--men and
beasts, the earth, stones, trees and all metals, just as you must have
seen that these things weep when they come out of frost and into heat.
When the messengers returned home and had done their errand well, they
found a certain cave wherein sat a giantess (gygr = ogress) whose name
was Thok. They requested her to weep Balder from Hel; but she answered:
Thok will weep
With dry tears
For Balder’s burial;
Neither in life nor in death
Gave he me gladness.
Let Hel keep what she has!
It is generally believed that this Thok was Loke, Laufey’s son, who has
wrought most evil among the asas.
54. Then said Ganglere: A very great wrong did Loke perpetrate; first of
all in causing Balder’s death, and next in standing in the way of his
being loosed from Hel. Did he get no punishment for this misdeed? Har
answered: Yes, he was repaid for this in a way that he will long
remember. The gods became exceedingly wroth, as might be expected. So he
ran away and hid himself in a rock. Here he built a house with four
doors, so that he might keep an outlook on all sides. Oftentimes in the
daytime he took on him the likeness of a salmon and concealed himself in
Frananger Force. Then he thought to himself what stratagems the asas
might have recourse to in order to catch him. Now, as he was sitting in
his house, he took flax and yarn and worked them into meshes, in the
manner that nets have since been made; but a fire was burning before
him. Then he saw that the asas were not far distant. Odin had seen from
Hlidskjalf where Loke kept himself. Loke immediately sprang up, cast the
net on the fire and leaped into the river. When the asas came to the
house, he entered first who was wisest of them all, and whose name was
Kvaser; and when he saw in the fire the ashes of the net that had been
burned, he understood that this must be a contrivance for catching fish,
and this he told to the asas. Thereupon they took flax and made
themselves a net after the pattern of that which they saw in the ashes
and which Loke had made. When the net was made, the asas went to the
river and cast it into the force. Thor held one end of the net, and all
the other asas laid hold on the other, thus jointly drawing it along the
stream. Loke went before it and laid himself down between two stones,
so that they drew the net over him, although they perceived that some
living thing touched the meshes. They went up to the force again and
cast out the net a second time. This time they hung a great weight to
it, making it so heavy that nothing could possibly pass under it. Loke
swam before the net, but when he saw that he was near the sea he sprang
over the top of the net and hastened back to the force. When the asas
saw whither he went they proceeded up to the force, dividing themselves
into two bands, but Thor waded in the middle of the stream, and so they
dragged the net along to the sea. Loke saw that he now had only two
chances of escape,--either to risk his life and swim out to sea, or to
leap again over the net. He chose the latter, and made a tremendous leap
over the top line of the net. Thor grasped after him and caught him, but
he slipped in his hand so that Thor did not get a firm hold before he
got to the tail, and this is the reason why the salmon has so slim a
tail. Now Loke was taken without truce and was brought to a cave. The
gods took three rocks and set them up on edge, and bored a hole through
each rock. Then they took Loke’s sons, Vale and Nare or Narfe. Vale they
changed into the likeness of a wolf, whereupon he tore his brother Narfe
to pieces, with whose intestines the asas bound Loke over the three
rocks. One stood under his shoulders, another under his loins, and the
third under his hams, and the fetters became iron. Skade took a serpent
and fastened up over him, so that the venom should drop from the serpent
into his face. But Sigyn, his wife, stands by him, and holds a dish
under the venom-drops. Whenever the dish becomes full, she goes and
pours away the venom, and meanwhile the venom drops onto Loke’s face.
Then he twists his body so violently that the whole earth shakes, and
this you call earthquakes. There he will lie bound until Ragnarok.