When Baldr is dead, one dares the most perilous ride of all the myths: Hermod, a son of Odin, rides into the underworld to bring the dead god back.
Hermod mounts Odin’s eight-legged steed Sleipnir and rides nine nights through ever darker valleys until he reaches the Gjallarbrú, the gold-roofed bridge over the river Gjöll, and at last the gate of Hel. Sleipnir clears the barred gate with one mighty leap, and Hermod stands before the goddess of the dead.
Hel sets a condition: Baldr may return if all things in the world weep for him – the living and the dead. The gods send out messengers, and indeed all things weep: people, animals, stones, trees. Only one giantess, Þökk, stays dry and jeers: „Þökk will weep dry tears." In her, it is supposed, hides Loki. And so Baldr remains in the realm of the dead – until after the end of the world.
Hermod (Hermóðr) is in Norse mythology a son of Odin and the bold messenger of the Aesir. His most famous appearance is at the same time one of the most moving moments of all mythology: the ride into the underworld to bring back the dead Baldr.
When Baldr is killed, Hermod offers to fetch him from the realm of the dead. For nine nights he rides on Odin's steed Sleipnir down through dark valleys until he reaches the bridge Gjallarbrú and the border of Hel.
Hermod steps before Hel herself and asks for Baldr's release. Hel sets a condition: if all beings of the world weep for Baldr, he may return. Almost all weep – only the giantess Thökk (probably Loki) refuses the tear.
Thus Hermod's brave ride fails on a single evil ruse. His venture shows the loyalty of the gods – and the inevitability of fate. Baldr stays with Hel until after Ragnarök a new world begins.
Though the ride fails, Hermod does not return empty-handed. Baldr gives him the ring Draupnir to bring back to Odin; his wife Nanna sends Frigg a linen robe and the handmaid Fulla a gold ring. So the messenger, even in death, binds the worlds of the living and the dead.
Who Hermod really is stays shimmering: Snorri calls him a son of Odin; elsewhere he sounds more like a mortal hero (the name Hermóðr also appears in the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf). The meaning of the story is clear: the North knows no resurrection. Death is final – only after the world-fire, in the new world, does Baldr return. This hardness, softened only by distant hope, is deeply Norse.
Baldr’s Death · Hel · Hringhorni · Loki.
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning 49. Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology.
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