Murder and Vengeance Among the Gods: Baldr and Scandinavian Mythology

Murder and Vengeance Among the Gods: Baldr and Scandinavian Mythology. By John Lindow. F.F. Communications, no. 262. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1997. 210pp. ISSN 0014 5815/ISBN 95141 08094

The story of Baldr, one of the most famous Scandinavian myths, has inspired endless debate. Is it a solar, seasonal or fertility myth? Has it borrowed from Christianity? Is it connected with the dying-and-rising gods of the Near East? Is it an aetiological story, to account for the first death and the first funeral? Is it about initiation? Is it about reincarnation? Was any ritual linked to it? Weighing the pros and cons of all these possibilities Professor Lindow cautiously finds that "it may be that the search for a unified Baldr theory is ultimately too grand an endeavour and should be scaled back to a series of attempts to interpret various texts or traditions" (p. 38).

With exemplary thoroughness he then explores all Icelandic and Danish accounts of Baldr, whether in verse or prose, treating each text individually and examining them almost word by word. Unlike his predecessors, he relates them to the ethos and preoccupations of their own times, not to presumed origins in heathen religion: in particular, he stresses the ethos of the blood feud so crucial in medieval Iceland. Seen in this context, the dilemma at the core of Baldr's story is that it is impossible for his family to avenge him, since the actual slayer is his own brother, the plotter Loki is blood brother to Baldr's father Odin, and the place of slaying is a sanctuary; on the other hand, the dishonour of leaving him unavenged would be a grave disadvantage to the gods in their ongoing feud with the giants. (Similar tragic problems are known in Germanic heroic legends.) Professor Lindow argues that the gods do contrive indirect but appropriate vengeance on Loki, by ensuring that one of his sons unwittingly kills the other, and binding him forever: but that Odin's begetting of Vali to take vengeance on Hothr is shameful, and leads only to further kin-slaying. Only in the new universe which follows the Doom of the Gods and inverts all natural and social order can the cycle of slaying cease.

Within the framework of this interpretation, there are many fascinating analyses of points of detail. Folklorists may be curious about the mistletoe, so grievously mishandled by Frazer; on balance, Lindow thinks the Scandinavians did indeed mean the plant (not the sword of the same name), that it had special status because it does not fit normal categories, and that they realised it was a frail object, whose transformation into a deadly missile would be magical. But I need hardly say there are no golden boughs to be found here, and no wondrous "all-heal."

Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore Society

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