Cult of Gods

Baldr

Norse tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
light, beauty, mercy
Symbols and attributes
Mistletoe (the instrument of his death)
Parents (per the sources used)
Odin and Frigg
Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.
Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.

Key myth

Everything swore not to harm Baldr, and the gods amused themselves throwing things at him. Loki had blind Höðr throw a mistletoe shoot and Baldr died. He is the one slain god whose return after Ragnarök is foretold.

Primary sources

  • Völuspá 31-35, 62
  • Gylfaginning 49

All sources for the Norse pantheon

Lineage in the sources used: Odin, Borr, Búri, Bestla, Frigg.

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

YmirFriggBúriNjörðrÆgirRánSólBorrBestlaFreyrFreyjaSifLokiSigynHeimdallrTýrOdinHelThorBaldr

More traditions

Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.HinduFolio 309r of the Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin), c. 800.Celtic (Irish)

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Baldr: death and the underworld. This is overlap in one area only.

Egyptian

Nut

sky, stars

Egyptian

Osiris

afterlife, resurrection, fertility of the flood

Egyptian

Isis

magic, protection, motherhood

Egyptian

Nephthys

mourning, protection of the dead

Egyptian

Anubis

embalming, guide of the dead

Mesopotamian

Nergal

plague, war, the underworld

Compare across cultures