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Updated: June 9, 2025
These were built of black marble; and the iron gate was barred and bolted, and none who went in had ever yet come out. Hermod called loudly to the porter to open the gate and let him in; but no one seemed to hear nor heed him, for the words of the living are unknown in that place. Then he drew the saddle-girths more tightly around the horse Sleipner, and urged him forward.
Hermod, at the word of the despairing Hoder, mounted the eight-footed steed, and set off on the perilous journey. Meanwhile, the other gods prepared the funeral pyre for Balder, determined that it should be worthy of the beloved and honored god.
And, when they reached the high halls of Asgard, the Asa-queen spoke, and said, "Who now, for the love of Balder and his stricken mother, will undertake an errand? Who will go down into the Valley of Death, and seek for Balder, and ransom him, and bring him back to Asgard and the mid-world?" Then Hermod the Nimble, the brother of Balder, answered, "I will go.
Besides," she added, looking more closely at Hermod, "you are not a dead man at all. Your lips are neither cold not blue. Why, then, do you ride on the way to Helheim?" "I seek Baldur," answered Hermod. "Tell me, have you seen him pass?" "Baldur," she said, "has ridden over the bridge; but there below, towards the north, lies the way to the Abodes of Death."
Hermod could speak of nothing but the past, and as he looked anxiously round the room his eyes became dim with tears. But Baldur seemed to see a light far off, and he spoke of what was to come. The next morning Hermod went to Hela, and entreated her to let Baldur return to Asgard.
And long, in the far dark, blazed Balder's pile; But fainter, as the stars rose high, it flared; The bodies were consumed, ash choked the pile. Then, when all was over, the gods went mournfully back to their homes, there to await the return of Hermod.
Hermod was surprised to see gold in such a place; but as he rode over the bridge, and looked down carefully at the stones, he saw that they were only tears which had been shed round the beds of the dying only tears, and yet they made the way seem brighter.
Hermod rode back, and coming to Asgard related all he had seen and heard. Then the gods sent messengers over all the world seeking to get Baldur brought back again by weeping. All wept, men and living things, earth, stones, trees, and metals, all weeping as they do when they are subjected to heat after frost. Then the messengers came back again, thinking they had done their errand well.
Cheered by this promise, Hermod turned to depart, but before he left he talked with Balder and with Nanna, his wife. They told him that all honor which could be paid to any one in the realms of the dead was paid to them; that Balder was made the judge in disputes between the shades.
The maiden who kept the bridge asked him his name and lineage, telling him that the day before five bands of dead persons had ridden over the bridge, and did not shake it as much as he alone. "But," she added, "thou hast not death's hue on thee; why then ridest thou here on the way to Hel?" "I ride to Hel," answered Hermod, "to seek Baldur. Hast thou perchance seen him pass this way?"
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