Baldr / Balder

Baldr is the best of the gods, and the saga of his death is the hinge on which the whole mythology swings toward its end. The shining son of Odin and Frigg, so beloved that his mother made every thing in the world swear never to harm him — every thing but the mistletoe, too young to ask. Loki found the gap. He guided the hand of the blind god Höðr, and the harmless sprig flew, and Baldr fell, and the gods' voices failed them. They sent to ransom him from Hel, who agreed to release him if all things would weep — and all things wept but one giantess (Loki again), so Baldr stayed among the dead. With him died the gods' invulnerability and their innocence; his killing is the first death of the new order and the promise of Ragnarök. Yet the prophecies say that after the world burns and is reborn, Baldr will come back — the one bright thread the North allowed itself to hold onto past the end.