Difference between revisions of "Balder" - New World Encyclopedia

Revision as of 17:53, 20 February 2007

Balder's death is portrayed in this illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript.

In Norse mythology, Balder (Old Norse: Baldr; Modern Icelandic and Faroese: Baldur; Modern Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and anglicized Old Norse: Balder) is the god of innocence, beauty, joy, purity, and peace, and is Odin's second son. His wife is called Nanna and his son Forseti. Balder had a ship, the largest ever built, named Hringhorni ("The Ring Horn"), and a hall, called Breidablik ("Broad Gleam"), where nothing impure was allowed entrance.

Balder represents the spirit of hope and renewal in the world, and his death (at the hands of Loki) is one of the major precursors to the apocalypse (Ragnarök).

Balder in a Norse Context

As a Norse deity, Balder belonged to a complex religious, mythological and cosmological belief system shared by the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples. This mythological tradition, of which the Scandinavian (and particularly Icelandic) sub-groups are best preserved, developed in the period from the first manifestations of religious and material culture in approximately 1000 B.C.E. until the Christianization of the area, a process that occurred primarily from 900-1200 C.E.^[1] The tales recorded within this mythological corpus tend to exemplify a unified cultural focus on physical prowess and military might.

Within this framework, Norse cosmology postulates three separate "clans" of deities: the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The distinction between Aesir and Vanir is relative, for the two are said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war, which the Aesir had finally won. In fact, the most major divergence between the two groups is in their respective areas of influence, with the Aesir representing war and conquest, and the Vanir representing exploration, fertility and wealth.^[2] The Jotun, on the other hand, are seen as a generally malefic (though wise) race of giants who represented the primary adversaries of the Aesir and Vanir.

Balder, the second son of Odin and a member of the Aesir, is the god of spring, innocence and joy.

Characteristics

As mentioned above, Balder was best known as the Norse god of spring and renewal - an Adonis-like youth whose goodness, purity and overall pleasant disposition made him near-impossible to dislike. Snorri Sturluson's description in the Prose Edda gives a clear indication of this characterization:

Annarr sonr Óðins er Baldr, ok er frá honum gott at segja. Hann er svá fagr álitum ok bjartr svá at lýsir af honum, ok eitt gras er svá hvítt at jafnat er til Baldrs brár. Þat er allra grasa hvítast, ok þar eptir máttu marka fegrð hans bæði á hár ok á líki. Hann er vitrastr ása ok fegrst talaðr ok líknsamastr. En sú náttúra fylgir honum at engi má haldask dómr hans. Hann býr þar sem heita Breiðablik, þat er á himni. Í þeim stað má ekki vera óhreint[.] - Text of T

The second son of Odin is Baldr, and good things are to be said of him. He is best, and all praise him; he is so fair of feature, and so bright, that light shines from him. A certain herb is so white that it is likened to Baldr's brow; of all grasses it is whitest, and by it thou mayest judge his fairness, both in hair and in body. He is the wisest of the Æsir, and the fairest-spoken and most gracious; and that quality attends him, that none may gainsay his judgments. He dwells in the place called Breidablik, which is in heaven; in that place may nothing unclean be[.] ^[3]

However, much like Persephone in the Greek tradition, Balder's primary import in the Norse tradition results from the mythic circumstances surrounding his untimely death (and his prophesied return after the fires of Ragnarök have burned out).

Mythic Representations

The Death and Return of Balder

As mentioned above, Balder is most renowned for the mythic accounts of his murder, which was seen in the Nordic cosmology as a precursor to the eschaton (Ragnarök).

Due to perceived similarities, Balder is sometimes associated with Christ in art, as is clearly emphasized in this illustration of Baldrs draumar (1893).

The accounts often beginHe had a dream of his own death (or his mother had the same dreams). Since dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, and his mother Frigg made every object on earth vow never to hurt Balder. All but one, an insignificant weed called the mistletoe, made this vow. Frigg had thought it too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow (alternatively, it seemed too young to swear). When Loki, the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant (in some later versions, an arrow). He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of hurling objects at Balder, which would bounce off without harming him. Loki gave the spear to Balder's brother, the blind god Höðr, who then inadvertently killed his brother with it. For this act, Odin and Rind had a child named Váli, who was born solely to punish Höðr, who was slain.

Balder was ceremonially burnt upon his ship, Hringhorni, the largest of all ships. As he was carried to the ship, Odin whispered in his ear. This was to be a key riddle asked by Odin (in disguise) of the giant Vafthruthnir (and which was, of course, unanswerable) in the Vafthruthnismal (the riddle also appears in the riddles of Gestumblindi in Hervarar saga). The dwarf Litr was kicked by Thor into the funeral fire and burnt alive. Nanna, Balder's wife, also threw herself on the funeral fire to await the end of Ragnarok when she would be reunited with her husband (alternatively, she died of grief). Balder's horse with all its trappings was also burned on the pyre. The ship was set to sea by Hyrrokin, a giantess, who came riding on a wolf and gave the ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.

Upon Frigg's entreaties, delivered through the messenger Hermod, Hel promised to release Balder from the underworld if all objects alive and dead would weep for him. And all did, except a giantess, Thokk, who refused to mourn the slain god. And thus Balder had to remain in the underworld, not to emerge until after Ragnarok, when he and his brother Höðr would be reconciled and rule the new earth together with Thor's sons.

When the gods discovered that the giantess had been Loki in disguise, they hunted him down and bound him to three rocks. Then they tied a serpent above him, the venom of which dripped onto his face. His wife Sigyn gathered the venom in a bowl, but from time to time she had to turn away to empty it, at which point the poison would drip onto Loki, who writhed in pain, thus causing earthquakes. He would free himself, however, in time to attack the gods at Ragnarok.

Loki tricks Höðr into shooting Balder.

In the Elder 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 Völuspá 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." 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.

Gesta Danorum

<variant> Writing about the end of the 12th century, the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form which professes to be historical. According to him, Balderus and Høtherus were rival suitors for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar, King of Norway. Now Balderus was a demigod and common steel could not wound his sacred body. The two rivals encountered each other in a terrific battle. Though Odin and Thor and the rest of the gods fought for Balderus, he was defeated and fled away, and Høtherus married the princess. Nevertheless Balderus took heart of grace and again met Høtherus in a stricken field. But he fared even worse than before. Høtherus 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 Balderus died of his injury and was buried with royal honours in a barrow.

The Punishment of Loki

Main article: Loki

(perhaps unnecessary)

Analogues (better title required)

The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the Persian hero Esfandyar in the epic Shahnameh. In Finnish mythology, Lemminkäinen shares just the same kind of fate as Balder: to be killed by a blind one at the feast of gods. Balder has also been likened to Jesus, as C. S. Lewis did when he said he "loved Balder before Christ." Balder, a god of light, shares some of Jesus' traits as a youthful "dying and rising" god, who returns after Ragnarok, the end of the world (comparable to the Christian Apocalypse) to usher in a new era of peace.

Beowulf

In Beowulf Balder appears as the geatish prince Herebeald, who is killed by his brother Hæþcyn (Höðr). The king Hreðel replaces Odin as the grieving father.

Toponyms (and Other Linguistic Traces) of Balder

There are few place names in Scandinavia that contains the name Balder. The most certain and notable one is the (former) parishname Baldishol in Hedmark county, Norway: "a Balldrshole" 1356 (where the last element is hóll m "mound; small hill"). Others may be (in Norse forms) Baldrsberg in Vestfold county, Baldrsheimr in Hordaland county Baldrsnes in Sør-Trøndelag county and the fjord and municipality Balsfjord in Troms county.

In Scandinavian, the Scentless Mayweed (Matricaria perforata) is named Balder's brows because of its whiteness.

Notes

↑ Lindow, 6-8. Though some scholars have argued against the homogenizing effect of grouping these various traditions together under the rubric of “Norse Mythology,” the profoundly exploratory/nomadic nature of Viking society tends to overrule such objections. As Thomas DuBois cogently argues, “[w]hatever else we may say about the various peoples of the North during the Viking Age, then, we cannot claim that they were isolated from or ignorant of their neighbors…. As religion expresses the concerns and experiences of its human adherents, so it changes continually in response to cultural, economic, and environmental factors. Ideas and ideals passed between communities with frequency and regularity, leading to and interdependent and intercultural region with broad commonalities of religion and worldview.” (27-28).
↑ More specifically, Georges Dumézil, one of the foremost authorities on the Norse tradition and a noted comparitivist, argues quite persuasively that the Aesir / Vanir distinction is a component of a larger triadic division (between ruler gods, warrior gods, and gods of agriculture and commerce) that is echoed among the Indo-European cosmologies (from Vedic India, through Rome and into the Germanic North). Further, he notes that this distinction conforms to patterns of social organization found in all of these societies. See Georges Dumézil's Gods of the Ancient Northmen (especially pgs. xi-xiii, 3-25) for more details.
↑ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning (XXII), (Brodeur, 36).

Bibliography

Björnsson, Eysteinn (ed.). Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita. 2005. http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/gg/
DuBois, Thomas A. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8122-1714-4.
Dumézil, Georges. Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Edited by Einar Haugen; Introduction by C. Scott Littleton and Udo Strutynski. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. ISBN 0-520-02044-8.
Lindow, John. Handbook of Norse mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. ISBN 1-57607-217-7.
Munch, P. A. Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes. In the revision of Magnus Olsen; translated from the Norwegian by Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt. New York: The American-Scandinavian foundation; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926.
Orchard, Andy. Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. London: Cassell; New York: Distributed in the United States by Sterling Pub. Co., 2002. ISBN 0-304-36385-5.
Sturlson, Snorri. The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson: Tales from Norse Mythology. Introduced by Sigurdur Nordal; Selected and translated by Jean I. Young. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1954. ISBN 0-520-01231-3.
Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda. Translated from the Icelandic and with an introduction by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: American-Scandinavian foundation, 1916. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php.
Turville-Petre, Gabriel. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.

External Links

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

Balder ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Balder"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

[1] Lindow, 6-8. Though some scholars have argued against the homogenizing effect of grouping these various traditions together under the rubric of “Norse Mythology,” the profoundly exploratory/nomadic nature of Viking society tends to overrule such objections. As Thomas DuBois cogently argues, “[w]hatever else we may say about the various peoples of the North during the Viking Age, then, we cannot claim that they were isolated from or ignorant of their neighbors…. As religion expresses the concerns and experiences of its human adherents, so it changes continually in response to cultural, economic, and environmental factors. Ideas and ideals passed between communities with frequency and regularity, leading to and interdependent and intercultural region with broad commonalities of religion and worldview.” (27-28).

[2] More specifically, Georges Dumézil, one of the foremost authorities on the Norse tradition and a noted comparitivist, argues quite persuasively that the Aesir / Vanir distinction is a component of a larger triadic division (between ruler gods, warrior gods, and gods of agriculture and commerce) that is echoed among the Indo-European cosmologies (from Vedic India, through Rome and into the Germanic North). Further, he notes that this distinction conforms to patterns of social organization found in all of these societies. See Georges Dumézil's Gods of the Ancient Northmen (especially pgs. xi-xiii, 3-25) for more details.

[3] Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning (XXII), (Brodeur, 36).

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 ==Mythic Representations==
 ===The Death and Return of Balder===
+As mentioned above, Balder is most renowned for the mythic accounts of his murder, which was seen in the Nordic cosmology as a precursor to the ''eschaton'' ([[Ragnarök]]).
-===The Punishment of Loki===
-{{main|Loki}}
-==The Prose Edda==
-[[Image:Tripleurospermum perforatum 20041012 2572.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[Matricaria perforata|Balder's brow]].]]In the [[Gylfaginning]] section of [[Snorri Sturluson]]'s [[Prose Edda]] Balder is described as follows.
-{|
-|
-:''Annarr sonr Óðins er Baldr, ok er frá honum gott at segja. Hann er svá fagr álitum ok bjartr svá at lýsir af honum, ok eitt gras er svá hvítt at jafnat er til Baldrs brár. Þat er allra grasa hvítast, ok þar eptir máttu marka fegrð hans bæði á hár ok á líki. Hann er vitrastr ása ok fegrst talaðr ok líknsamastr. En sú náttúra fylgir honum at engi má haldask dómr hans. Hann býr þar sem heita Breiðablik, þat er á himni. Í þeim stað má ekki vera óhreint[.]'' - ''Text of T''
-|
-:The second son of Odin is Baldr, and good things are to be said of him. He is best, and all praise him; he is so fair of feature, and so bright, that light shines from him. [[Matricaria perforata|A certain herb]] is so white that it is likened to Baldr's brow; of all grasses it is whitest, and by it thou mayest judge his fairness, both in hair and in body. He is the wisest of the Æsir, and the fairest-spoken and most gracious; and that quality attends him, that none may gainsay his judgments. He dwells in the place called Breidablik, which is in heaven; in that place may nothing unclean be[.] - ''Brodeur's translation''
-|
-|}
-Apart from this gushing description Balder is known primarily for the myth surrounding his death. His death is seen as the first in the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at [[Ragnarok]]. Balder will be reborn in the new world, however, as foretold in the [[Völuspá]]. With this resurrection in mind, he is classified as a [[life-death-rebirth deity]].
 [[Image:Balder.jpg|thumb|right|Due to perceived similarities, Balder is sometimes associated with Christ in art, as is clearly emphasized in this illustration of ''[[Baldrs draumar]]'' (1893).]]
-He had a dream of his own death (or his mother had the same dreams). Since dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, and his mother [[Frigg]] made every object on earth [[vow]] never to hurt Balder. All but one, an insignificant weed called the [[mistletoe]], made this vow. Frigg had thought it too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow (alternatively, it seemed too young to swear). When [[Loki]], the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant (in some later versions, an arrow). He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of hurling objects at Balder, which would bounce off without harming him. Loki gave the spear to Balder's brother, the blind god [[Höðr]], who then inadvertently killed his brother with it. For this act, Odin and [[Rindr|Rind]] had a child named [[Váli (son of Odin)|Váli]], who was born solely to punish Höðr, who was slain.
+The accounts often beginHe had a dream of his own death (or his mother had the same dreams). Since dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, and his mother [[Frigg]] made every object on earth [[vow]] never to hurt Balder. All but one, an insignificant weed called the [[mistletoe]], made this vow. Frigg had thought it too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow (alternatively, it seemed too young to swear). When [[Loki]], the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant (in some later versions, an arrow). He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of hurling objects at Balder, which would bounce off without harming him. Loki gave the spear to Balder's brother, the blind god [[Höðr]], who then inadvertently killed his brother with it. For this act, Odin and [[Rindr|Rind]] had a child named [[Váli (son of Odin)|Váli]], who was born solely to punish Höðr, who was slain.
 Balder was ceremonially burnt upon his ship, Hringhorni, the largest of all ships. As he was carried to the ship, Odin whispered in his ear. This was to be a key riddle asked by Odin (in disguise) of the giant [[Vafthruthnir]] (and which was, of course, unanswerable) in the [[Vafthruthnismal]] (the riddle also appears in the riddles of [[Gestumblindi]] in [[Hervarar saga]]). The dwarf [[Litr]] was kicked by [[Thor]] into the funeral fire and burnt alive. Nanna, Balder's wife, also threw herself on the funeral fire to await the end of Ragnarok when she would be reunited with her husband (alternatively, she died of grief). Balder's horse with all its trappings was also burned on the pyre. The ship was set to sea by [[Hyrrokin]], a [[giantess]], who came riding on a wolf and gave the ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
@@ Line 53: / Line 38: @@
 When the gods discovered that the [[giantess]] had been [[Loki]] in disguise, they hunted him down and bound him to three rocks. Then they tied a serpent above him, the venom of which dripped onto his face. His wife [[Sigyn]] gathered the venom in a bowl, but from time to time she had to turn away to empty it, at which point the poison would drip onto Loki, who writhed in pain, thus causing earthquakes. He would free himself, however, in time to attack the gods at Ragnarok.
-<br style="clear:both">
+[[Image:Loki and Hod.jpg|thumb|right|[[Loki]] tricks [[Höðr]] into shooting Balder.]]
-==The Poetic Edda==
-[[Image:Loki and Hod.jpg|thumb|right|[[Loki]] tricks [[Höðr]] into shooting Balder.]]
 In the [[Elder 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 [[Völuspá]] 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." 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.
-==Gesta Danorum==
+====Gesta Danorum====
+<variant>
 Writing about the end of the [[12th century]], the old Danish historian [[Saxo Grammaticus]] tells the story of Balder in a form which professes to be historical. According to him, '''Balderus''' and '''Høtherus''' were rival suitors for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar, King of Norway. Now Balderus was a demigod and common steel could not wound his sacred body. The two rivals encountered each other in a terrific battle. Though Odin and Thor and the rest of the gods fought for Balderus, he was defeated and fled away, and Høtherus married the princess. Nevertheless Balderus took heart of grace and again met Høtherus in a stricken field. But he fared even worse than before. Høtherus 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 Balderus died of his injury and was buried with royal honours in a barrow.
-==Chronicon Lethrense and Annales Lundenses==
+===The Punishment of Loki===
-There are also two less known Danish Latin chronicles, the ''[[Chronicon Lethrense]]'' and the ''Annales Lundenses'' of which the latter is included in the former. These two sources provide a second [[Euhemerus|euhemerized]] account of Höðr's slaying of Balder.
+{{main|Loki}}
+(perhaps unnecessary)
-It relates that Hother was the king of the [[Saxons]] and son of [[Hothbrodd|Hothbrod]] and the daughter of [[Hadding]]. Hother first slew Othen's (i.e. Odin) son Balder in battle and then chased Othen and Thor. Finally, Othen's son Both killed Hother. Hother, Balder, Othen and Thor were incorrectly considered to be gods.
+==Analogues (better title required)==
+The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the [[Iran|Persian]] hero [[Esfandyar]] in the epic [[Shahnameh]]. In Finnish mythology, [[Lemminkäinen]] shares just the same kind of fate as Balder: to be killed by a blind one at the feast of gods. Balder has also been likened to [[Jesus]], as [[C. S. Lewis]] did when he said he "loved Balder before Christ." Balder, a god of light, shares some of Jesus' traits as a youthful [[Life-death-rebirth deity|"dying and rising" god]], who returns after [[Ragnarok]], the end of the world (comparable to the Christian [[Apocalypse]]) to usher in a new era of peace.
 ==Beowulf==
 In [[Beowulf]] Balder appears as the [[geatish]] prince [[Herebeald]], who is killed by his brother [[Hæþcyn]] ([[Höðr]]). The king [[Hreðel]] replaces [[Odin]] as the grieving father.
-==Balder in place names==
+==Toponyms (and Other Linguistic Traces) of Balder==
 There are few place names in Scandinavia that contains the name ''Balder''. The most certain and notable one is the (former) parishname [[Baldishol]] in Hedmark county, Norway: "a Balldrshole" 1356 (where the last element is ''hóll'' m "mound; small hill"). Others may be (in [[North Germanic languages|Norse]] forms) ''Baldrsberg'' in Vestfold county, ''Baldrsheimr'' in Hordaland county ''Baldrsnes'' in Sør-Trøndelag county and the fjord and municipality Balsfjord in Troms county.
-==Analogues==
-The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the [[Iran|Persian]] hero [[Esfandyar]] in the epic [[Shahnameh]]. In Finnish mythology, [[Lemminkäinen]] shares just the same kind of fate as Balder: to be killed by a blind one at the feast of gods. Balder has also been likened to [[Jesus]], as [[C. S. Lewis]] did when he said he "loved Balder before Christ." Balder, a god of light, shares some of Jesus' traits as a youthful [[Life-death-rebirth deity|"dying and rising" god]], who returns after [[Ragnarok]], the end of the world (comparable to the Christian [[Apocalypse]]) to usher in a new era of peace.
-==Balder's brows==
 In [[Scandinavian language|Scandinavian]], the ''[[Matricaria perforata|Scentless Mayweed]]'' (''[[Matricaria perforata]]'') is named ''Balder's brows'' because of its whiteness.
-==Modern popular culture==
-{{main|Balder in popular culture}}
-Balder has been the basis of various works of art and appears irregularly in modern popular culture.
 ==Notes==