Höðr
The blind son of Odin, he is tricked and guided by Loki into shooting a mistletoe arrow which was to slay the otherwise invulnerable Baldr.
[5] Jan de Vries and Vladimir Orel write that is comparable with Old Norse hǫð ('war, slaughter'), and related to Old English heaðu-deór ('brave, stout in war'), from Proto-Germanic *haþuz ('battle'; cf.
Œrit er hann styrkr, en vilja mundu goðin at þenna ás þyrfti eigi at nefna, þvíat hans handaverk munu lengi vera höfð at minnum með goðum ok mönnum.
All things except the mistletoe (believed to be harmless) have sworn an oath not to harm Baldr, so the Æsir throw missiles at him for sport.
Þá mælti Loki: "Gerðu þó í líking annarra manna ok veit Baldri sœmð sem aðrir menn.
— Eysteinn Björnsson's edition[10] "Then, when Baldr was fallen, words failed all the Æsir, and their hands likewise to lay hold of him; each looked at the other, and all were of one mind as to him who had wrought the work, but none might take vengeance, so great a sanctuary was in that place."
Því næst koma þar Baldr ok Höðr frá Heljar, setjask þá allir samt ok talask við ok minnask á rúnar sínar ok rœða of tíðindi þau er fyrrum höfðu verit, of Miðgarðsorm ok um Fenrisúlf.
— Eysteinn Björnsson's edition[12] "After that Baldr shall come thither, and Hödr, from Hel; then all shall sit down together and hold speech with one another, and call to mind their secret wisdom, and speak of those happenings which have been before: of the Midgard Serpent and of Fenris-Wolf."
Svá, at kalla hann blinda ás, Baldrs bana, skjótanda Mistilteins, son Óðins, Heljar sinna, Vála dólg.
Thus: by calling him the Blind God, Baldr's Slayer, Thrower of the Mistletoe, Son of Odin, Companion of Hel, Foe of Váli."
Svá, at kalla hann son Óðins ok Rindar, stjúpson Friggjar, bróður ásanna, hefniás Baldrs, dólg Haðar ok bana hans, byggvanda föðurtófta.
Thus: by calling him Son of Odin and Rindr, Stepson of Frigg, Brother of the Æsir, Baldr's Avenger, Foe and Slayer of Hödr, Dweller in the Homesteads of the Fathers."
— Brodeur's translation[15] It is clear from this that Snorri was familiar with the role of Váli as Höðr's slayer, even though he does not relate that myth in the Gylfaginning prose.
The poem Vafþrúðnismál informs us that the gods who survive Ragnarök are Viðarr, Váli, Móði and Magni with no mention of Höðr and Baldr.
Some scholars[citation needed] have found the fact that the poets should want to compare warriors with Höðr to be incongruous with Snorri's description of him as a blind god, unable to harm anyone without assistance.
[25] In Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, Hotherus is a human hero of the Danish and Swedish royal lines.
Hotherus is gifted in swimming, archery, fighting and music and Nanna, daughter of King Gevarus falls in love with him.
But at the same time Balderus, son of Othinus, has caught sight of Nanna bathing and fallen violently in love with her.
[27] Gevarus tells Hotherus that Balderus is invincible but that he knows of one weapon which can defeat him, a sword kept by Mimingus, the satyr of the woods.
Riding through a region of extraordinary cold in a carriage drawn by reindeer, Hotherus captures the satyr with a clever ruse and forces him to yield his artifacts.
Hotherus then gains another ally with his eloquent oratory by helping King Helgo of Hålogaland win a bride.
Hotherus foresees that he will die in the battle and asks the assembly of elders to pass the kingship to his son Rorik, which they do.
It contains a second, briefer euhemerized account of Höðr's slaying of Balder,[36] as follows: After this, Hother's son Rorik Slengeborre, aka Rake, became king.
[40] Höðr's parentage is not explicitly given in this text, but he may be the same as Haukr, the second legitimate son of Raum the Old by his wife Hilda, daughter of Gudrod the Old.
According to the Swedish mythologist and romantic poet Viktor Rydberg,[41] the story of Baldr's death was taken from Húsdrápa, a poem composed by Ulfr Uggason around 990 AD at a feast thrown by the Icelandic Chief Óláfr Höskuldsson to celebrate the finished construction of his new home, Hjarðarholt, the walls of which were filled with symbolic representations of the Baldr myth among others.
Rydberg theorized that the author of the Gylfaginning then mistook the description of the symbolic artwork in the Húsdrápa as the actual tale of Baldr's death.
