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Updated: June 13, 2025
Nor do the brave inflict a shallower wound on maidens than the comely. Now it befell that Balder the son of Odin was troubled at the sight of Nanna bathing, and was seized with boundless love. He was kindled by her fair and lustrous body, and his heart was set on fire by her manifest beauty; for nothing exciteth passion like comeliness.
The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much, these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind.
She put out her arm and tenderly supported him. "Where?" said he at length. "Near the house, there!" she pointed. Balder began to walk forward doubtfully. But, suddenly realizing what lay before him, clearness and vigor ebbed back. He saw a figure turn the corner of the house. Then he leapt out and ran like a stag-hound!
"Balder is the mildest, the wisest, and the most eloquent of all the AEsir," says the "Edda." A voice of wail went through the palaces of Asgard when Balder was slain by the mistletoe dart. Hermod rode down to the kingdom of Hela, or Death, to ransom the lost one. Meantime his body was set adrift on a floating funeral pyre.
The story of Balder, the joyous and kindly god whom all things loved, is evidently the mythical form of the passing of summer sunshine and the coming of winter with its darkness and gloom. We must always remember that our remote ancestors interpreted their world concretely, and mainly in terms of human life, because they had no abstract ideas at their command.
Four-and-twenty years ago this day, I married your parents on this very spot. The anniversary shall become a double one!" The black eye-sockets of the mummy stared Balder in the face. But at a touch from Manetho, he turned, and saw Gnulemah, bright with beautiful enchantment, in the doorway. "Yes, to-day!" he said impetuously.
"I should kill him, not as animals kill one another, but from rage and hatred." "Hatred!" repeated Gnulemah, dislikingly; "hatred, what is it?" "A passion of men's hearts, the wish that evil may befall others. When the hatred is bitter enough, and the opportunity fair, they kill!" Gnulemah shuddered slightly and looked sad. Then she leaned towards Balder and touched his shoulder persuasively.
But she is great enough to believe without seeing; and in the deepest sense, her belief is true. She still remains in that ideal fairy-land in which I found her; and no doubt, as time goes on, her visions grow more beautiful!" Thus Balder Helwyse, in tones agreeably vigorous, though grave and low.
"Because," answered Balder after some consideration, "the world is made in such a way, that unless we record all we do by some visible symbol, everything would get into confusion." "No no," protested Gnulemah, earnestly. "Only God should know how we love. Must the world know our words and thoughts, and how we have sat beneath these trees? Then let us not be married!"
The ring, which Balder had taken off with the intention of returning it to its owner, still remained between his thumb and finger; and as he sat under the gloom of the altar, its excellent brilliancy caught his eye. He had never examined it minutely. It was pure as virtue, and possessed similar power to charm the dusky air into seven-hued beauty.
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