The Death Of Balder
"The Death of Balder" is about a God named Balder. All of Heaven and Earth adored Balder, he was said to be the "most beautiful of all the Gods." All of a sudden, Balder began to have dark dreams about something bad happening to himself, he went to the Gods in the council and told them about these dreams. The Gods began to worry that Balder was in danger and that something might happen to him. Odin, Balder's father and Frigg, his mother, also began to worry and they tried to come up with ideas to try and protect Balder from any danger. Frigg said that she would go into all nine worlds and have all of nature promise never to hurt Balder. Wood, stones, iron, metal, earth, snakes, disease, beasts and birds all promised to never harm Balder. The only thing that did not promise not to harm Balder was the mistletoe because Frigg did not think that she would need to ask it because it was too young and weak to ever harm her son. All of the Gods tested everything out by throwing their weapons, sticks and stones at Balder, time after time each item being thrown would drop to the ground. The trickster named Loki, became jealous that Balder was getting so much attention from all of the Gods. He dressed up as a servant girl and went into Frigg's Palace to get more information about everything that promised not to harm Balder. Frigg mistook Loki as a servant girl and told him that the mistletoe was the only thing that did not promise to never hurt Balder. Loki took this opportunity and went to find the little mistletoe plant, he then crept up behind the crowd that was still throwing things at Balder and found Balder's blind twin, Hod. He asked Hod why he was not throwing anything at Balder and told him that he needs to show respect to Balder like everyone else. He then placed the mistletoe in Hod's hand and helped him aim it towards Balder. Hod threw the mistletoe and hit Balder straight in the heart, just like that, Balder fell to the ground dead. Everyone was so upset, they decided that Balder should have a proper funeral. The Gods had his funeral on Ringhorn, when Balder's wife, Nanna showed up, she died of a broken heart and was laid with Balder to be pushed into the sea on the ship. When they tried to push the ship into the water it would not move, so they called Hyrrokin, a giantess to push it into the sea. Frigg could not deal with the death of her son, she sent the God Hermod to the land of the dead to find Balder and bring him back. Hermod went through the land of the dead for nine days and nine nights and finally found Balder, he asked Hel if he could bring Balder back because so many people were missing him so much. Hel said that Balder would be able to go back home if everything on earth missed and grieved for Balder. Hermod went back home and asked everyone to pray for Balder to come home again, Loki dressed up as a giantess and named herself Thokk, when Hermod asked him to grieve from Balder he said "I loved him not. Let Hel keep him for as long as he likes. With that, Balder was not aloud to return to the land of the living.