Giants, Gods and Beasts: A Guide to Norse Mythology

The Foreshadowing

Balder's Death and Loki's Judgement
When Balder started suffering from nightmares, Odin decided to consult a the ghost of a volva, a seer. He spilt his blood upon her grave as an offering and her spirit rose moaning from the grave. In a grave voice, she declared Balder would die soon. But Frigg didn't give up hope and made everything and everyone except the gentle mistletoe promise not to harm her fair son. The gods held a party and threw anything they could at Balder and it all fell to his feet. Loki, his heart burning with rage, hatched a sinister plan. He crafted a sharp arrow from a sprig of mistletoe and gave it to Hod, the blind god of bloodlust, rage, and carnage. Then Loki guided him and let him fire his arrow, which pierced Balder's heart and killed him. His wife Nanna died of grief and Odin's youngest son Vali, born of the giantess Rind, cut down Hod in revenge. The gods prepared the greatest funeral ever, with all the creatures of the world, including the jotnar and the dwarves. Balder, Nanna, and Hod were all wrapped in golden shrouds and place in Balder's ship Ringhorni, which the giantess Hyrokkin pushed into the water. Thor lit the ship on fire and as he blessed the flames by swinging Mjolnir over his head three times, he noticed the dwarf Lit mocking him and threw him onto the burning ship. Everyone wept as Ringhorni sank beneath the waves and the spirits of the three dead gods descended to the underworld. Hermod, another son of Odin, vowed to rescue Balder from the grave, much to Frigg's delight. For nine nights he rode through the underworld until he reached the Gjallarbru, a glowing bridge of pure gold. There, Hermod was stopped by Modgud, a giantess who guarded the bridge, and explained his business, so she let him pass, since she missed Balder as well. Finally, the humble god arrived at the hall Eljudnir and confronted the goddess Hel. She decreed unless everything wept for Balder, he would remain with her. Hermod took the message back to Asgard and from there it was sent around the whole world. Soon, everything and everyone was crying for poor, gentle Balder. Sadly, he stayed put in the underworld because an ungrateful crone calling herself Thokk, one of Loki's forms, refused to so much as shed a single tear.

The gods wanted to find the culprit who killed Balder so they could punish him. Vali recalled seeing Loki near Hod, who fired the lethal arrow, and Odin force-fed his own blood brother a truth serum. The trickster confessed and so he was punished. Odin himself turned Loki's son Narfi into a hart and set his wolves upon him. Then the poor trickster was tied to a boulder with his son's entails and a serpent, provided by Skadi, hung over him, dripping venom in his face. Sigunn, Loki's faithful wife, helped her husband by collecting the snake's venom in a cup, but as she went to empty it when it was full, Loki suffered. He thrashed in his fetters, shaking the earth and making the gods lower their heads in shame. By harming Odin's adoptive brother, they had dishonored themselves and were no longer high and holy anymore.