by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1817)
Once upon a time, in a far away world, there was born to the Allfather and the Goddess of Wisdom, a boy they named Balder.
Balder is called the Shining One, but what matters is that he was he was the gentlest of all the Gods, and the most beloved, for he was the God of Peace.
His mother, Frigg, loving him greatly, sought to ensure he could never die, and went to all the worlds and asked every living thing for its promise not to harm Balder. The only one she did not receive a promise from was mistletoe, for it was young.
And so, when the Loki, the God of Mischief, decided to kill Balder, he tipped an arrow with Mistletoe and tricked a blind God into shooting Balder, and so died the Shining God, The God of Peace, and the most beloved God of all.
His mother, Frigg, bereft, went to the Goddess of the dead and asked that he be allowed to leave the land of the dead, and live again. Hel was willing to allow it, so long as everyone who lived agreed.
And so Frigg went, again, to all who lived on all the worlds, and asked their permission. All agreed save one, though none agree who that one was: Loki, or the Willow, whom he tricked, and who has wept ever since that it was so.
And so Balder stayed dead, the most beloved of all the Gods, and he will not live again, until after the final battle of Ragnarok.
Please consider the meaning of this story before continuing…
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Peace is the most precious and beloved of all things, and the most fragile. All it takes to kill peace, is one person who does not agree to keep the peace. And peace cannot be restored so long as even one person does not want it restored.
Obviously this is not quite true, but it nonetheless contains a great truth worth thinking on.
We live in a world where we have de-mythologized and, as such, we rarely consider the truth behind many myths or what they were trying to say.
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