A Norse narrative, told fully in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, of the death of the god Baldr, made invulnerable to all things but mistletoe by his mother Frigg's oaths, killed by a dart of mistletoe thrown by the blind god Hodr at the trickster Loki's instigation, and kept in the underworld Hel when the giantess Thokk, Loki in disguise, refuses to weep for him.
Facts
History
Historical NoteSnorri's Prose Edda account was composed around 1220 AD, drawing on earlier poetic sources including Baldrs draumar and Voluspa, themselves preserved in thirteenth century manuscripts but understood to record older oral tradition. 1 Historical NoteSome scholars propose the Gotland picture stone Ardre VIII, carved centuries before Snorri wrote, as a possible depiction of a funeral ship scene connected to Baldr, a tentative and disputed reading rather than a settled identification, offered alongside the later literary accounts rather than in place of them. 2 Meaning
Central MotifThe one exempted weapon that kills an invulnerable god, and the single refused tear that keeps him dead 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteScholars of Norse religion have long treated Baldr's death as a test case for the wider category of dying gods, though unlike some Near Eastern parallels his return is deferred to after Ragnarok rather than occurring within the myth itself. 2 Text
Source TextSnorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning, and the Poetic Edda's Baldrs draumar 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars dispute how much of the death of Baldr as Snorri tells it reflects genuine pre-Christian tradition against how much reflects his own thirteenth century, Christian-influenced shaping of the material. 2 Sources
Primary SourceSnorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Poetic Edda poem Baldrs draumar, preserved chiefly in the Codex Regius manuscript. 1 Connections
Associated With
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Prose EddaSnorri Sturluson
Motif Diffusion
Why this is disputed. Both are commonly cited in the older comparative dying-god literature; the whole dying-and-rising-god category has been challenged by later scholars (notably Jonathan Z. Smith) as overstated, so this is recorded as a live, contested comparison rather than a settled pattern.
Related To
Sources
1. The Prose Edda
Snorri Sturluson, The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916View the Source 2. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
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