| Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden
Bough. 1922. |
LXI. The Myth of Balder |
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| A DEITY whose life might in a sense be said
to be neither in heaven nor on earth but between the two, was the
Norse Balder, the good and beautiful god, the son of the great god
Odin, and himself the wisest, mildest, best beloved of all the
immortals. The story of his death, as it is told in the younger or
prose Edda, runs thus. Once on a time Balder dreamed heavy
dreams which seemed to forebode his death. Thereupon the gods held a
council and resolved to make him secure against every danger. So the
goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and water, iron and all metals,
stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and poisons, and from all
four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things, that they would not
hurt Balder. When this was done Balder was
deemed invulnerable; so the gods amused
themselves by setting him in their midst, while some shot at him,
others hewed at him, and others threw stones at him. But whatever
they did, nothing could hurt him; and at this they were all glad.
Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased, and he went in the
guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him that the weapons of the
gods could not wound Balder, since she had made them all swear not
to hurt him. Then Loki asked, “Have all things sworn to spare
Balder?” She answered, “East of Walhalla grows a plant called
mistletoe; it seemed to me too young to swear.” So Loki went and
pulled the mistletoe and took it to the assembly of the gods. There
he found the blind god Hother standing at the outside of the circle.
Loki asked him, “Why do you not shoot at Balder?” Hother answered,
“Because I do not see where he stands; besides I have no weapon.”
Then said Loki, “Do like the rest and show Balder honour, as they
all do. I will show you where he stands, and do you shoot at him
with this twig.” Hother took the mistletoe and threw it at Balder,
as Loki directed him. The mistletoe struck Balder and pierced him
through and through, and he fell down dead. And that was the
greatest misfortune that ever befell gods and men. For a while the
gods stood speechless, then they lifted up their voices and wept
bitterly. They took Balder’s body and brought it to the sea-shore.
There stood Balder’s ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was the
hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn
Balder’s body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for a
giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the
ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the
earth shook. Then Balder’s body was taken and placed on the funeral
pile upon his ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst
for sorrow and she died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with
her husband, and fire was put to it. Balder’s horse, too, with all
its trappings, was burned on the pile. |
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| Whether he was a real or merely a mythical
personage, Balder was worshipped in Norway. On one of the bays of
the beautiful Sogne Fiord, which penetrates far into the depths of
the solemn Norwegian mountains, with their sombre pine-forests and
their lofty cascades dissolving into spray before they reach the
dark water of the fiord far below, Balder had a great sanctuary. It
was called Balder’s Grove. A palisade enclosed the hallowed ground,
and within it stood a spacious temple with the images of many gods,
but none of them was worshipped with such devotion as Balder. So
great was the awe with which the heathen regarded the place that no
man might harm another there, nor steal his cattle, nor defile
himself with women. But women cared for the images of the gods in
the temple; they warmed them at the fire, anointed them with oil,
and dried them with cloths. |
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| Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel
underlying a mythical husk in the legend of Balder, the details of
the story suggest that it belongs to that class of myths which have
been dramatised an ritual, or, to put it otherwise, which have been
performed as magical ceremonies for the
sake of producing those natural effects which they describe in
figurative language. A myth is never so graphic and precise in its
details as when it is, so to speak, the book of the words which are
spoken and acted by the performers of the sacred rite. That the
Norse story of Balder was a myth of this sort will become probable
if we can prove that ceremonies resembling the incidents in the tale
have been performed by Norsemen and other European peoples. Now the
main incidents in the tale are two—first, the pulling of the
mistletoe, and second, the death and burning of the god; and both of
them may perhaps be found to have had their counterparts in yearly
rites observed, whether separately or conjointly, by people in
various parts of Europe. These rites will be described and discussed
in the following chapters. We shall begin with the annual festivals
of fire and shall reserve the pulling of the mistletoe for
consideration later on. |
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