Death of Baldur - Myth
Baldur began to have dreams about his death, which caused his mother, Frigg, to extract an oath from every object on Erde not to harm her son Baldur. All agreed that none of their kind would ever hurt or assist in hurting Baldur (all except mistletoe). After this vow the other gods used his seeming invincibility to practice throwing knives and shooting arrows at him.
This plan was almost perfect except that she had missed one thing that she had thought too insignificant, the weed mistletoe. The trickster god, Loki, took a disguise and asked Frigg if anything could harm Baldur. Thinking nothing of it, she told him about the mistletoe. Loki immediately left to gather some of the weed and make a dart out of it. At the same time, several of the gods were playing a game with Baldur where they were throwing projectiles at him in an attempt to strike him; however, since all objects had vowed to never harm Baldur, he could not be touched by the gods' attempts. Loki gave the dart of mistletoe to Baldur's blind twin brother, Hodr, so that he, too, could participate in the game. Not knowing what was in his hand, and having the aid of Loki's aim, he launched the dart into Baldur's chest, killing him on the spot. Although somewhat innocent, he was later slain by the new son of Odin and Rindr, Váli, whom had been born, and grew up in one day, for the single purpose of avenging Baldur'sdeath.
The other gods lamented his death, and Odin sent Hermodr to the goddess of death, Hel, to plead for Baldur's return to life. She said in reply that she would let him live again if everyone in the world, alive or dead, would weep for him. Loki had now disguised himself as the a giantess, and was the only one who would not weep for him, so Baldur stayed with Hel.
Now the gods began the funeral for the god of Light and placed his body, wrapped in crimson, upon his ship, the Ringhorn, as a funeral pyre. Alongside him on the pyre was his wife, Nanna, who died of heartache at his passing. Also on his pyre was all of his possessions and his horse. The ship was pushed out to sea by the giantess Hyrrokin.
Loki was punished for his integral role in the death of the most beloved of the gods. He was then hunted down, tied to three rocks, and a serpent was tied above his face, which would continuously drip venom onto his face until Ragnarök.
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