Myths & Sacred Narratives

The Death of Baldr

Dying-Rising Myths

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "The Death of Baldr." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://divinity.interactivelion.com/myths-sacred-narratives/the-death-of-baldr.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Death of Baldr. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://divinity.interactivelion.com/myths-sacred-narratives/the-death-of-baldr

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-the-death-of-baldr,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {The Death of Baldr},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://divinity.interactivelion.com/myths-sacred-narratives/the-death-of-baldr},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A Norse narrative, told fully in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, of the death of the god Baldr, made invulnerable to all things but mistletoe by his mother Frigg's oaths, killed by a dart of mistletoe thrown by the blind god Hodr at the trickster Loki's instigation, and kept in the underworld Hel when the giantess Thokk, Loki in disguise, refuses to weep for him.

Facts

History

Historical Note

Snorri's Prose Edda account was composed around 1220 AD, drawing on earlier poetic sources including Baldrs draumar and Voluspa, themselves preserved in thirteenth century manuscripts but understood to record older oral tradition. 1

Historical Note

Some scholars propose the Gotland picture stone Ardre VIII, carved centuries before Snorri wrote, as a possible depiction of a funeral ship scene connected to Baldr, a tentative and disputed reading rather than a settled identification, offered alongside the later literary accounts rather than in place of them. 2

Scholarship and Forensics

Scholarly Note

Scholars of Norse religion have long treated Baldr's death as a test case for the wider category of dying gods, though unlike some Near Eastern parallels his return is deferred to after Ragnarok rather than occurring within the myth itself. 2

Sources

Primary Source

Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Poetic Edda poem Baldrs draumar, preserved chiefly in the Codex Regius manuscript. 1

Meaning

Central Motif

The one exempted weapon that kills an invulnerable god, and the single refused tear that keeps him dead 1

Text

Source Text

Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning, and the Poetic Edda's Baldrs draumar 1

Controversy

Point in Dispute

Scholars dispute how much of the death of Baldr as Snorri tells it reflects genuine pre-Christian tradition against how much reflects his own thirteenth century, Christian-influenced shaping of the material. 2

Cross-Tradition Connections