Balder was the beautiful son of Odin and Frigg, and the most loved. He was wed to the lovely Nanna, and they lived in a palace of pure silver and rich gold, so blessed that nothing unclean could come within it. The men of Midgaard loved Balder too, for he had taught them the ways of herbs and other cures. Balder had a brother named Hod, who was blind, and though he was happy and merry all day long, Hod was quiet and sad, in his world of darkness. Regardless of that, the two were very close, and the brothers loved each other very much.

Odin knew that Balder's death marked the coming of Ragnarok, and when Balder told the Aesir that he frequently had nightmares and knew his end was coming, Odin was worried. He resurrected an old prophetess who told him that Balder's blind brother, Hod, would eventually slay Balder.

Frigg, hoping to avert the death of her son, had all things that grew out of the earth and the earth itself to swear an oath not to hurt Balder. Even poison and sicknesses had themselves sworn not to hurt Balder. Odin was of course comforted, although he knew that the web woven by the Norns could not be easily picked.

The Aesir themselves had discovered a new game. Finding themselves unable to hurt Balder, they took delight in throwing weapons at him, with the weapons bouncing off with Balder unhurt, for the oath they had sworn protected Balder. Loki looked on the gaiety of the Aesir with much distaste and he knew he just had to kill Balder.

So Loki disguised himself as an old woman, and approached Frigg to learn more about the oath. From there he found out that Frigg had not extracted an oath from the mistletoe, which she found too weak and small to harm Balder. With this information, Loki proceeded to pluck some mistletoe and enchanted it with runes which made it deadly. He then joined the party throwing stuff at Balder, and found Hod standing at a corner quietly.

When Loki asked him why he was not playing, he replied that he was blind and could not see Balder, and would not be able to join in. Loki thus gave the enchanted mistletoe to him, and guided his hand to throw the mistletoe at Balder. Hod, in all innocence, let Loki guide his hand and when the mistletoe was thrown, Balder fell dead.

When the gods saw this, some fell silent, whilst many wept. They knew Hod had no intention of hurting his brother, and would not raise their hands to hurt Hod.

Odin told Hermodur, the swiftest of the Aesir, to journey to Nifelheim, the land of the dead, and seek Balder's return from Hel, the queen of the dead. Hermodur returned with the news that if all creatures on the world were to weep for Balder, Balder would return among the Aesir. Messages were sent out all over the worlds, and all creatures from men to trolls and even the giants wept for Balder. However, the giant Thokk refused to weep, even after much begging from Hermodur. When Hermodur told Odin, Odin was resigned to Balder's death, and he knew that Loki was no longer a friend of the Aesir, for he refused to weep for Balder.

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