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MYTHOLOCY
BY EDITH HAMILTON
Illustrated
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COPYRIGHT 1942 BY EDITH HAMILTON
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LTBRARv oF CoNcnBss Cere.r-oc C.qno Nur'rnen 98-67177
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Mythol.ogg
The Norse Gods
Maidens were his attendants, the Ver,rvnrus. They waitetl
on the table in Asgard and kept the &inking horns full, but
their chief task was to go to the battleffeld and decide at
Odin's bidding who should win and who should die, and
carrv the brave dead to Odin. VaI means "slain," and thc
Valkyries were the Choosers of the Slain; and the place to
whic'h they brought the heroes was the Hall of the Slain
Valhalla. In batde, the hero doomed to die would see
Maidens excellent in beauty,
Rrdrng their steeds in shining annor,
Solemn and deep in thought,
With their white hands beckoning.
Odin knew then that Balder must die, but the other gods believed that Frigga had made him safe. They played a gamg
accordingly *tri"t gave them much pleasure. They would
try to hit Balder, to throw a stone at him or hurl a dart or
shoot an arrow or strike him with a sword, but always the
weapons fell short of him or rolled harmlessly a'way. Nothing
*oJd hurt Balder. He seemed raised above them by this
strange exemption and all honored him for it, except one
only,1on. He was not a god, but the son of a Giant, and
wherever he came trouble followed. He continually involved
the gods in difficulties and dangers, but he was allowed to
come freely to Asgard because for some reason never explained Odin had sworn brotherhood with him. He always
hated the good, and he was jealous of Balder. He determined
to do his best to find some way of injuring him. He went to
Frigga disguised as a woman and entered into talk with her,
Frigga told him of her journey to ensure Balder's safety and
how everything had sworn to do him no harm. Except for
one little shrub, she said, the mistletoe, so insignificant she
had passed it by.
That was enough for Loki. He got the mistletoe and went
with it to where the gods were amusing themselves. Hoprn,
Balder's brother, who was blind, sat apart. "Why not join in
the game?" asked Loki. "Blind as I am?"' said Hoder. 'And
with nothing to throw at Balder, either?" "Oh, do your part,"
Loki said. "Here is a twig. Throw it and I will direct your
aim." Hoder took the mistletoe and hurled it with all his
strength. Under Lokis guidance it sped to Balder and pierced
his heart. Balder fell to the ground dead.
His mother refused even then to give up hope. Frigga
cried out to the gods for a volunteer to go down to Hela
and try to ransom Balder. Hermod, one of her sons, ofiered
4
Wednesday is of course Odin's day, The Southern form o{
his name was Woden'
Of the other gods, only five were important: Ber,nen,
THon, Fnnrn, HrrMo'llr', and TYn.
Ber,opn was the most beloved of the gods, on earth as in
heaven. His death was the ffrst of the disasters which fell
upon the gods. One night he was troubled with dreams
*hi"tt seemed to foretell some great danger to him. When
his mother, FnIGcA, the wife of Odin, heard this she determined to protect him from the least chance of danger. She
went through the world and exacted an oath from everything, all things with life and without life, never to do him
h"tti. But Odin still feared. He rode down to Nrrr,renvr, the
world of the dead, where he found the dwelling of Hnr,e,
or Hrl, the Goddess of the Dead, all decked out in festai
array.A Wise Woman told him for whom the house had been
made readYz The mead has been brewed for Balder.
The hope of the high gods has gone.
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Mythology
The Norse Gods
himself. Odin gave him his horse Sleipnir and he sped down
to Niflheim.
The others prepared the funeral. They built a lofty pyne
on a great ship, and there they laid Balder's body. Nanna,
his wife, went to look at it for the last time; her heart broke
and she fell to the deck dead. Her body was placed beside
his. Then the pyte was kindled and the ship pushed from
tle shore. As it sailed out to sea, the flames lmped up and
wrapped it in ffre.
When Hermod reached Hela with the gods'petition, she
answered that she would give Balder back if it were proved
to her that all everpvhere mourned for him. But if one thing
or one living creature refused to weep for him she would keep
him. The gods dispatched messengers everywhere to ask
all creation to shed tears so that Balder could be redeemed from death. They met with no refrxal. Heaven and
earth and everything therein wept willingly for the beloved
god. The messengers rejoicing started back to carry the news
to tle gods. Then, almost at the end of their journey, they
came upon a Giantess - and all the sorrow of the world was
turned to futility, for she refused to weep. 'Only dry tears
will you get from me," she said mockingly.'l had no good
from Balder, nor will I give him good." So Hela kept her dead.
Loki was punished. The gods seized him and bound him
in a deep cavern. Above his head a seqpent was placed so
that its venom fell upon his face, causing him unutterable
pain. But his wife, Sigyn, came to help him. She took her
place at his side and caught the venom in a cup. Even so,
whenever she had to empty the cup and the poison fell on
him, though but for a moment, his agony was so intense that
his convulsions shook the earth.
Of the three other great gods, Tuon was the Thunder-god,
for whom Thursday is named, the strongest of the Aesir;
Fnrvn cared for the fruits of the eadh; Hrruolr,r, was the
warder of Bifriist, the rainbow bridge which led to Asgard;
Tyn was the God of War, for whom Tuesday, once Tyr's
day, was named.
In Asgard goddesses were not as important as they were in
Olympus. No one among the Norse goddesses is comparable
to Athena, and only two are really notable. Frigga, Odin's
wife, for whom some say Friday is named, was reputed to be
very wise, but she was also very silent and she told no one,
not even Odin, what she knew. She is a vague ffgure, oftenest depicted at her spinning-wheel, where the threads she
spins are of gold, but what she spins them for is a secret.
Freya was the Goddess of Love and Beauty, but, strangely
to our ideas, half of those slain in battle were hers. Odin's
Valkpies could carry only half to Valhalla' F*y" herse{
rode to the battleffeld and claimed her share of the dead, and
to the Norse poets that was a natural and fftting office for
the Goddess of Love. Friday is generally held' to have been
named for her.
But there was one realm which was handed over to the sole
nrle of a goddess. The Kingdom of Death was Hela's, No god
had any authority there, not Odin, even. Asgard the Golden
belonged to the gods; glorious Valhalla to the heroes; Midgard was the battleffeld for men, not the business of women.
Gudrun, in the Elder Edda, says,
The fferceness of men mles the fate of women.
The cold pale world of the shadowy dead was woman's
sphere in Norse mythology.