Baldur
Sign in to savethumb|right|"Each arrow overshot his head" (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith. Baldr (Old Norse also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in Old English as ', and in Old High German as ', all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym ('hero' or 'prince').
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Baldur is a god in Germanic and Norse mythology, known as the son of Odin and Frigg who had brothers including Thor. He matters to our understanding of ancient Germanic religious beliefs and the mythological traditions preserved in Old Norse texts and other Germanic cultures.
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Article
15 sectionsContents
- Name
- Attestations
- Merseburg Incantation
- ''Poetic Edda''
- ''Prose Edda''
- ''Gesta Danorum''
- Utrecht Inscription
- ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''
- Toponyms
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|right|"Each arrow overshot his head" (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith. Baldr (Old Norse also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in Old English as ', and in Old High German as ', all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym ('hero' or 'prince').
During the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. Compiled in Iceland during the 13th century, but based on older Old Norse poetry, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda contain numerous references to the death of Baldr as both a great tragedy to the Æsir and a harbinger of Ragnarök.