Even though he is the protagonist of the central myth, a veil of mystery always covers Baldur, making it difficult for a modern Asatruan to understand more easily his role in the Nordic faith. For this reason we’ll set out to analyze Baldur’s actions and attempt to explain what they should mean to an Asatruan, as well as what kind of attitude one should have towards him in everyday life.

We’ll begin by analyzing the most important source for Nordic mythology studies – Snorri’s Eddas, and try to understand how the famous Icelander represented Baldur and Loki. For starters, we must not forget that in the time of Snorri Sturluson Iceland was under the influence of Christianity for two hundred years. In order to avoid the reproach of the Christian church, he had to represent the Gods as rulers that lived on Earth, and give some of them the characteristics of Christian personalities. First and foremost, Christ the Saviour and Lucifer, the fallen angel. For this reason in his manuscripts Loki bears an uncanny resemblance to the devil, focusing on him the concept of evil and darkness, in contrast to the concept of good and light represented by Baldur (“Vitekrist” – White Christ). Snorri Sturluson depicted Baldur as a peaceful God of light, wisdom and beauty in general, as a God of everything that’s perfect by human standards. Described this way, as an innocent God of spiritual and physical purity, whose sacrifice makes him a Saviour, Baldur bears an uncanny likeness to Jesus Christ. Even though it’s a fact that both Baldur and Jesus belong to the sphere of solar deities, i.e. the Tiferet sphere, that does not mean that one should consider these two deities as one and the same. This connexion only goes to the fact that some of Christ’s characteristics made it easier for Christians to transform Baldur in a way that suited them. But, the question remains whether Snorri did this only to avoid church criticism or were his writings a reflection of his personal beliefs. It’s my opinion that the only reason he modified the myths was to avoid being criticized by the church, since it was the only way he could even publish the stories, sagas and poems he collected. The tales he collected are from a time before the Christianization and they were very well known among the people, and the changes he made cannot be so drastic to alter their entire concepts. Therefore we can, with some reluctance, rely on Snorri and his version, because the basic structure of the myth remained unchanged.

Baldur is the son of Odin and Friga, he’s the God of beauty and the favourite member of the Asir family. He is so beautiful and fair skinned that he appears to be glowing; he resides in the purest place in Asgard called Breidablik (Broad-gleaming). We know very little about him, except that he was merciful, wise and honourable, and that his wife was the Goddess Nana. His fifteen minutes in the Edda come when he has a dream that foretells his death, which is a common place in the lives of many heroes in sagas. In the version given by Saxo Grammaticus, Hel tells him in a dream that she’s eagerly waiting for his embrace, which some explain by the fact that Hel was in love with the luminous Baldur, which is not impossible if we know that another Goddess was fervent for Baldur’s love, namely Skadi, whose fate didn’t allow for this either. This result is perfectly logical, since it looks like an impossible match: an ice queen and the sunny Baldur.

Now, is the sacrificed God purely fictional, a change made on purpose to increase the similarity to Jesus Christ?
The earliest literary source describing Baldur’s story comes from an Anglo-Saxon poem influenced by Christianity just like as Snorri’s account, but with one difference: here, Baldur is depicted as a brave, young warrior (like in Saxo Grammaticus’s account), heading for a difficult war endeavour. The warrior is wounded by an arrow, not a spear, and his death, bringing sorrow and tears to the whole world, is explained as “a cruel fate”. The Christian author of this poem simply replaces his God (Christ, who dies as punishment) with the existing Germanic model of the brave, sacrificed warrior. It appeared to him to be better and worthier. There are other sources, from pre-Christian times, which were – obviously – without Christian influences, and they still mention it and thus prove the theory of Baldur as a sacrificed deity. From one such poem, composed by Ulfr Uggason, we find that Baldur was called Heilagr tafn, meaning The Holy Sacrifice. The word tafn was used among the people to name a sacrifice offered to the Gods, and in their poems the skalds would usually replace that word with hrafn, which means raven and symbolizes death in battle.

At this point we can firmly claim that Baldur as a sacrificed deity is from the original Germanic myth, and that Snorri only used him as the God most suited to be a personification of Christ in his modified version of the myths, this way avoiding reproaches from the Christian church and making it possible to publish his priceless Eddas. Nonetheless many question remained unanswered and it seems that only now we can consider the real Baldur and what he symbolizes.

Many of the people studying Baldur interpret his sacrifice as a sort of initiation of a young warrior who through death becomes even more powerful; as a grown man, an even greater warrior and, most of all, a ruler. Here we can create a parallel with Odin who, after his initiation on Yggdrasil where he dies as well, becomes more powerful than before. According to Edred Thorsson (The Book of Throth), Baldur’s initiation is even more important than Odin’s, because it has even more significance for the whole world. As we know, Baldur survives Ragnarok in the safety of Helheim and replaces his father Odin who dies, taking the throne as the ruler of the Gods and the people of a new, better world. The meaning of life is the never-ending evolution and regeneration; the point of Ragnarok is to cleanse the rot of the old world, and make place for a new one, which will be perfect and ideal. Odin realized this journeying in his quest for knowledge. According to Gundarsson, the mystical word that the Father whispered to his son before the immolation was Eihwas. As we already know, Eihwaz is the Rune of self-sacrifice, consciously facing death and destruction, but a death that brings about it a transformation of awareness as well as a spiritual revolution of the person being sacrificed. Whether it’s a sacrifice like Odin’s, or a more unseen sacrifice like Baldur’s, one thing is for sure – the Rune coming after Eihwaz is Perdho – the Rune of initiation, that leads the adept into a new world, the world of Mysteries, at the same time giving him knowledge he could have only dreamt of.
Will then Baldur appear stronger and more powerful than he was before? Of course he will, because after Ragnarok he will be the supreme deity of the new, cleansed world. Was his sacrifice needed? Of course it was, because by sacrificing its best and most sacred the world could be transformed for the better. Exactly for this reason we can consider sacrifice as a type of initiation, just like in Odin’s case (sacrificing his eye and the shamanic death on Yggdrasil).

Hence every Asatruan, as a courageous follower of ancient values, must remember Baldur every time he pays tribute to the Gods, knowing the true value of life, that lies in constant advancement and betterment. One shouldn’t ask of him a favour, like from the other Gods. We should only salute him and show he’s not forgotten. When the Sun reaches its peak in the heavens, in Midsummer, greet him as the symbol of salubrious light and the joy of living. When winter comes and the Sun is feeble, give him strength with your thoughts and words. During Yule, when the dead are closest to us, give honour to the ancestors and remember the God who awaits his rebirth. When spring comes (Ostara), feel the morsel of the atmosphere of the rejuvenated nature that will reign after Ragnarok.

Varg

translation: Uroš Rajčević