BALDER, or &mina, a divinity worshiped by the ancient Scandinavians, and probably also by the other Germanic nations, is the hero of one of the most beautiful and interesting of the myths of the Edda. B., who, according to old northern mythol ogy, was the second son of Odin and Frigga, and the husband of Nanua (maiden), dreamed evil dreams which threatened his life. When he related them to the gods, they held a council and endeavored to secure his safety. Frigga took an oath from fire and water, from iron and all metals, from stones. earth, and plants, beasts and birds. the serpent, poison and all diseases, that they would not harm Balder. After this was done, the gods in their mirth sported with B., wrestled with him, and cast darts at him, hut nothing could injure him. While the gods rejoiced at this, the thing displeased Loki (mischievous cunning or destructive fire). He changed himself into the form of an old woman, and inquiring the cause of the invulnerability of It, was told by Frigga that all things, animate and inanimate, had sworn not to harm him, with the exception of one little shrub, time mistletoe. Loki went in haste to fetch this shrub, and repaired with it to the assembly of the gods, where he placed it in the hands of the blind IThder, the god of war, directed his aim, and B. fell pierced to the heart. The sorrow of the gods was unutterable. Frigga asked who, to win her favor, would journey to Hel—the goddess of Illtlers or the grave—to release Balder. Hermoder or Helmod (the heroic), the son of Odin, readily offered his services. and Het consented to grant hiS request on condition that all things should weep for Balder. All men, all living beings, and all timings wept. save the witch or giantess ThiSek (the step-daughter of Loki), Who refused to sympathize in the general mourning. R was therefore obliged to remain in the
kingdom of Hel until the end of the world.
The myths of B. have been very differently interpreted. B., as the originator of all that is beneficent and good—for B. and the other sons of Odin .(see SCANDINAVIAN MyrnoLociY) are only personified aspects or functions of the dimly-coneeived one unseen Power that moves all nature—is represented as a hero of so lovely andgraceful a manly beauty, that a brilliant light streams from his person; the whitest of the northern flowers is named As the god of peace of the Germanic nations, who conducts to peace through battle and victory, he is a purely ethical conception, a mythical personifi cation of the peace obtainable through conflict, and agreed to by compact among the gods. The gods, foreseeing doubtless that peace cannot long endure, seek in every pos sible way to secure the precious life of B., as even the weakest and most insignificant have it in their power to destroy peace. Loki, in his symbolical character as the god of retributive justice, stirs up Hader, or War, through whom the god of peace falls. Hader, indeed, is also slain by \Vali, or Val-fader, the battle-god, and the war is ended by a bloody overthrow; but once violated and broken, peace is irrevocably lost along with Balder. Hermoder or Helmod labors in vain to restore it, for the giantess Thock ,(retaliation, revenge) prevents it. Holy and true peace can only revive again in a new world. when the old sinful world and the old guilt-stained gods now ruling it shall have been destroyed.—Others (among them Max Muller) see in the myth of B. a representa tion of between winter and summer. Compare Weinhold, Die ,Sager Ton Loki, in Haupt's Zeitschrift fur Deutsches Alterthum (Leip., 1849).