Balder the Beautiful, Volume I., Part VII., The

Volume 1 — CHAPTER III

Reading edition

THE MYTH OF BALDER

[How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke of the mistletoe.]

[Tale of Balder in the older Edda.]

[The story of Balder as related by Saxo Grammaticus.]

[Balder worshipped in Norway.]

[The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the Persian hero Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi.]

[The myth of Balder was perhaps acted as a magical ceremony. The two chief incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the mistletoe and the death and burning of the god, have perhaps their counterparts in popular ritual.]

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 dramatized in 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.

Notes:

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · Footnote 256 : (return) Die Edda, übersetzt von K. Simrock,8 (Stuttgart, 1882), pp. 286-288. Compare pp. 8, 34, 264. Balder's story is told Note 2 · Footnote 257 : (return) Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, i. (Oxford, 1883) p. 197. Compare Edda Rhythmica seu Note 3 · Footnote 258 : (return) G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, i. 200 sq.; Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina Note 4 · Footnote 259 : (return) Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, ed. P.E. Müller (Copenhagen, 1839-1858), lib. iii. vol. i. pp. 110 sqq.; The Firs Note 5 · Footnote 260 : (return) Fridthjofs Saga, aus dem Alt-isländischen, von J.C. Poestion, (Vienna, 1879), pp. 3 sq., 14-17, 45-52.Note 6 · Footnote 261 : (return) The Epic of Kings, Stories retold from Firdusi, by Helen Zimmern (London, 1883), pp. 325-331. The parallel between B Note 7 · 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 bea Note 8 · In the older or poetic Edda the tragic tale of Balder is hinted at rather than told at length. Among the visions which the Norse Sibyl sees Note 9 · Writing about the end of the twelfth century, the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form which professes Note 10 · 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, whic Note 11 · It might be rash to affirm that the romantic figure of Balder was nothing but a creation of the mythical fancy, a radiant phantom conjured u