Saxo’s version (12th c.) |
Snorri’s
version, Gylfaginnung 49-50. (ca. 1220) |
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Balder tells of ‘perilous dreams’ of his death |
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Balder is a champion warrior, guarded by Valkyries, and made invincible, with venomed food |
Aesir demand that all things be harmless to B, and mother Frigg takes oaths of all, ‘iron and stone, earth and tree, illness and venomed serpents’, etc. |
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They make a game of it at the Thing: ‘some shoot …hack, beat with stones’; with no harm done. |
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Loki is jealous and pries the secret out of Frigg, that harmless mistletoe was unsworn. |
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Hoder is a warrior (sighted), rival for Nanna. H learns of a magic sword held by ‘satyr’ Mimingus. With this he fights Balder; victory goes to one and then the other; Nanna chooses Hoder. |
Loki takes the mistletoe to Hoder (the blind god) and urges him to join the fun: Hoder shoots the mistletoe at Balder (with Loki guiding it) and kills Balder. |
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Hermod, at urging of Frigg and father Odin, takes Sleipnir and rids to Hel, to plead for Balder back. |
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Balder dying is carried about in covered wagon (like Freyr?). But is finally, fatally wounded with Hoder’s magic sword. He dreams of Hel, a dream of doom. He is buried in a great mound. |
Meanwhile Balder is burned at sea (giantess Hyrroking launches the boat?). His wife Nanna is laid on the pyre; pyre is hallowed by Mjollnir (of course). Odin gives Draupnir. Balder’s horse also is given to the flames. All the gods ‘of all races’ attend. |
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Hermod rides 9 nights, to Hel-gate, where he found Balder sitting in the hall (apparently with Nanna beside him). Hermod pleads that all the gods are weeping, but Hel insists on a test: All must weep (without exception). Hermod returns with this message. |
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Aesir send
word that all must weep, ‘and all men did this, and quick things, and the
earth, and stones, and trees, and all metals’. But the giantess Thökk/Loki
said, ‘Let Hel hold what she has!’ |
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Odin plots vengeance on Hoder fathers another son (Boe) to be the avenger. |
Aesir pursue Loki. Kvasir discovers the pattern of a net in ashes of the fire, and concludes that Loki has taken the form of a fish. They make a net on that pattern and use it to catch Loki. Loki very nearly leaps out of the net, but Thor catches him by the tail. |
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(No obvious link to WorldsEnd?) |
Loki is imprisoned in a cave with his 3 sons; one of the sons is turned into a wolf and he tears into another; from which the Aesir take the entrails (intestines) and tie to Loki to 3 stones. Skadi fastens a serpent above him, dripping its venom at his face (Sigyn holds a basin to catch what she can, but the rest makes Loki writhe causing earthquakes). |
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And thus he suffers until Ragnarok(r). |
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