Hey, Baldr!

I’ve got 50 philosophy essays to grade, an entire novel to revise so I can start the editing process, and the kids were home yesterday with a snow day.

Naturally my brain decided to give me another idea for a story RIGHT NOW!

[image error]Actual footage of Samantha MacLeod

I was sitting down, staring at my mountain of work, when my brain whispered… “Hey, BALDR!”

Who’s Baldr, you ask?

He’s a Norse god, of course! The son of Odin and Frigg, Baldr the Beautiful plays a minor but important role in the Eddas.

[image error]Lookin’ good, Baldr!

After Baldr dreams of his own death, his mother travels the Nine Realms, forcing everyone and everything to vow not to harm her beautiful son.

Everything agrees…except mistletoe.

Enter Loki, our favorite Norse god.

[image error]Lookin’ good, Loki!

For rather unclear motives (which are explained fully in my erotic Loki romance novel, of course), Loki fashions a mistletoe dart and gives it to Baldr’s blind brother, Hodr. The dart pierces Baldr’s heart, and he dies.

BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The myth continues here, and ends with the punishment of Loki. That’s not what got my attention.

Because Baldr didn’t fall in battle, he ends up in Niflhel, the realm of the inglorious dead.

And who rules Niflhel?

Loki’s daughter, Hel, who is variously described as “half dark and half light” or, more poetically, as half living and half dead.

[image error]Lookin’ uh, oh, hi Hel!

Well. I do wonder how the two of them hit it off…

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