Old Norse also shows the usage of the word as an honorific in a few cases, as in baldur î brynju ( Sæm. Old English bæl, Old Norse bál 'fire') attached to dæg ('day'). Philologist Rudolf Simelk also argues that the Old English Bældæg should be interpreted as meaning 'shining day', from a Proto-Germanic root * bēl- (cf. According to linguist Vladimir Orel, this could be linguistically tenable. This etymology was originally proposed by Jacob Grimm (1835), who also speculated on a comparison with the Lithuanian báltas ('white', also the name of a light-god) based on the semantic development from 'white' to 'shining' then 'strong'. Old Norse ballr 'hard, stubborn', Gothic balþa* 'bold, frank', Old English beald 'bold, brave, confident', Old Saxon bald 'valiant, bold', Old High German bald 'brave, courageous'). Old Norse mann-baldr 'great man', Old English bealdor 'prince, hero'), itself a derivative of *balþaz, meaning 'brave' (cf. The Old Norse theonym Baldr ('brave, defiant' 'lord, prince') and its various Germanic cognates – including Old English Bældæg and Old High German Balder (or Palter) – probably stems from Proto-Germanic *Balðraz ('Hero, Prince' cf. 2.5 Chronicon Lethrense and Annales Lundenses.

Baldr had the greatest ship ever built, Hringhorni, and there is no place more beautiful than his hall, Breidablik. Compiled in Iceland during the 13th century, but based on older Old Norse poetry, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda contain numerous references to the death of Baldr as both a great tragedy to the Æsir and a harbinger of Ragnarök.Īccording to Gylfaginning, a book of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Baldr's wife is Nanna and their son is Forseti. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in Old English as Bældæġ, and in Old High German as Balder, all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym * Balðraz ('hero' or 'prince').ĭuring the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. In Norse mythology, Baldr ( Old Norse: ) is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli.

'Each arrow overshot his head' (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith.īaldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology.

Balder the brave mythology