Frigg

Loki placed the mistletoe in Höðr’s hands and guided his aim towards Baldr. Höðr was blind and had no weapon, so Loki told him to join the game held in Baldr’s honour. The mistletoe pierced Baldr, and he fell dead. The gods were struck silent. They could not seize his body, and the sacred place prevented them from taking vengeance at once.

Loki had first disguised himself as an old woman and questioned Frigg about Baldr’s protection. She had secured promises from everything living and dead, but had overlooked the young mistletoe because it seemed too small to ask for a pledge. Loki learned this, pulled up the plant, and made darts from it. After Baldr’s death, Frigg and Höðr sent the courageous Hermóðr to Hel. He rode to the realm of the dead and begged Hel to release Baldr.

Hel said that Baldr would return if everything living and dead wept for him. If anything refused, he would remain with her. Baldr accompanied Hermóðr out of the hall. He sent the ring Draupnir to Odin. Nanna sent Frigg a kerchief and other gifts, and sent Fulla a ring. Hermóðr returned to Asgard and reported what he had seen and heard.

The gods sent messengers throughout the world. Men, beasts, the earth, stones, trees, and metals all wept for Baldr. In a cave, however, an old giantess named Thökk refused. She said that Baldr had brought her misery, and that she would shed no tear for him. Because one being had refused, Hel kept Baldr. Some accounts say that Thökk was Loki in disguise. The gods later seized Loki and bound him in a deep cave, with a venomous serpent above his head. Baldr remained in Hel until Ragnarök, when he was to be released alongside his brother Höðr.

Baldr dreamed that his life was in danger. He told the other gods, and they took counsel. Frigg, his mother and Odin’s wife, travelled through the world and asked everything she encountered to promise that it would never harm her son.

Fire swore that it would not burn him, and water promised not to drown him. Iron and every other metal would not cut him. Stones would not bruise him. Trees, beasts, birds, and creatures that crept, flew, or crawled each gave an oath on behalf of their kind. Oak, ash, pine, beech, birch, and fir promised that their wood would not be used against him. Frigg also addressed diseases and infirmities, and they agreed not to wound or touch Baldr. She asked almost everything, but passed over the mistletoe, a small plant that grew on other trees. It seemed too young and insignificant to pose a danger.

When the oaths became known, Baldr and the gods made a game of them. At their meetings, they shot at him, struck at him, and threw stones. Nothing harmed him, and the gods treated the game as entertainment. Loki then came to Frigg disguised as an old woman. Speaking in a thin, cracked voice, he asked whether everything had sworn not to injure Baldr. Frigg confirmed this, but admitted that the mistletoe had not been asked.

Loki found the plant growing in a great oak near the gates of Valhalla. One account says that he pulled it up. Another says that he placed a spell on it, making it larger and stronger, then made an arrow from one of its twigs. When the gods resumed their game, Loki saw that Höðr, Baldr’s blind twin, was not taking part. He gave Höðr a bow and the mistletoe weapon, offering to guide his aim. Höðr fired. The weapon struck Baldr, who fell mortally wounded. The gods cried out in horror. Nanna, Baldr’s wife, saw his lifeless body and died from grief beside him.

Loki forced his way into Ægir’s hall while the gods were feasting. He had been excluded, and only Thor was absent. Loki compelled Odin to assign him a seat, then began insulting the gods and goddesses. Bragi offered him a horse, a sword, and a ring if he would repay the Æsir without hatred. Loki mocked Bragi as timid and challenged him to fight. Idunn asked Bragi to remember the ties between kin and adopted children, so that he would not speak words of blame to Loki.

Loki continued the quarrel with the gods. Odin and Loki traded accusations about their conduct in former times. Loki reminded Odin that he had sometimes awarded victory to faint-hearted men. Odin answered that Loki had once lived beneath the earth for eight winters as a milch cow and a woman, where he bore children. Loki replied that Odin had practised seiðr on Samsey, travelled among mankind in the likeness of a seeress, and behaved like a wizard.

Frigg then spoke. She told Loki that the fates Odin and Loki had encountered in former times should not be revealed before the people in the hall. The living should keep away from ancient matters. Loki attacked her in return. He called her Fiorgyn’s daughter and said that she had always been man-mad. He accused her of taking both Ve and Vili into her embrace, while calling her the wife of Vidrir. Frigg refused to trade private knowledge with him. She said that if she had a son like her own in Ægir’s hall, Loki would not continue unchecked. Her reply defended her son and rebuked Loki for his conduct.

Loki continued insulting the company, and the gods answered him in turn. He spoke before the Æsir and their sons, saying what his mind prompted him to say. The quarrel ended when Thor returned from his journey in Giant-land and threatened Loki with Mjöllnir. Loki then fell silent and agreed to leave Ægir’s hall.