Baldur

The name "Baldur" is Old Norse, likely derived from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "brave" or "bold." While its precise etymology is debated, it is associated with concepts of strength and radiance. The god appears prominently in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, foundational texts of Norse mythology.

The "Giver of all Good". The bright God who is "the best and all mankind are loud in his praise ; so fair and dazzling is he in form and features, that rays of light seem to issue from him". (Edda). Such was the birth-song chanted to Baldur who resurrects as Wall, the spring Sun. Baldur is called the "well-beloved", the "Holy one", "who alone is without .sin". He is the "God of Goodness", who "shall be born again, when a new and purer world will have ari.seu from the ashes of the old, sin-laden world (Asgard)". He is killed by the crafty Loki, because Frigga, the mother of the gods, "while entreating all creatures and all lifeless tilings to swear that tiiey will not injure the well-beloved", forgets to mention "the weak mistletoe bough", just as the mother of Achilles forgot her .son's heel. A dart is made of it by Loki and he places it in the iiands of blind Ilodur who kills with it the sunny-hearted god of light. The Christmas mi.sletoe is probably a reminiscence of the mistletoe that killed the Northern God of Goodness.

The figure of Baldur, the radiant god slain by a mistletoe dart, offers a potent symbol for the modern seeker grappling with the ephemeral nature of perfection and the pervasive presence of shadow. His story, as preserved in the Eddas, is not merely a mythological account but a profound meditation on light and darkness, innocence and cunning, and the cyclical promise of renewal. Mircea Eliade, in his work on myth and reality, would likely see Baldur as an archetypal manifestation of the solar hero, whose death and resurrection mirror the cosmic cycles of day and night, summer and winter, life and death. The very vulnerability of Baldur, betrayed by the one thing his mother overlooked in her protective enchantments, speaks to a universal truth: that no being, however divine, is entirely immune to the subtle workings of fate or the unintended consequences of existence.

The Christmas mistletoe, a lingering echo of this ancient myth, serves as a tangible reminder of how these primordial narratives embed themselves in our cultural consciousness, often in ways we scarcely perceive. It transforms a festive decoration into a symbol of hidden danger and ultimate redemption. Carl Jung, exploring the collective unconscious, would find in Baldur a powerful archetype of the divine child, the pure essence that is both vulnerable and destined for a transformative rebirth. His story, therefore, is not just about a god's death but about the perennial human experience of loss, the confrontation with the shadow (Loki), and the enduring hope for a new beginning, a "purer world" rising from the ashes. It is a myth that invites contemplation on the nature of goodness itself, its fragility, and its irrepressible capacity to return.

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