een Loki in
disguise. When she was called upon to shed a tear, she mocked the
heralds, and fleeing into the dark recesses of her cave, she declared
that no tear should fall from her eyes, and that, for all she cared,
Hel might retain her prey for ever.

"Thok she weepeth
With dry tears
For Balder's death--
Neither in life, nor yet in death,
Gave he me gladness.
Let Hel keep her prey."

Elder Edda (Howitt's version).

As soon as the returning messengers arrived in Asgard, the gods
crowded round them to learn the result of their mission; but their
faces, all aglow with the joy of anticipation, grew dark with despair
when they heard that one creature had refused the tribute of tears,
wherefore they would behold Balder in Asgard no more.

"Balder, the Beautiful, shall ne'er
From Hel return to upper air!
Betrayed by Loki, twice betrayed,
The prisoner of Death is made;
Ne'er shall he 'scape the place of doom
Till fatal Ragnarok be come!"

Valhalla (J. C. Jones).

Vali the Avenger

The decrees of fate had not yet been fully consummated, and the final
act of the tragedy remains to be briefly stated.

We have already seen how Odin succeeded after many rebuffs in securing
the consent of Rinda to their union, and that the son born of this
marriage was destined to avenge the death of Balder. The advent of
this wondrous infant now took place, and Vali the Avenger, as he
was called, entered Asgard on the day of his birth, and on that
very same day he slew Hodur with an arrow from a bundle which he
seems to have carried for the purpose. Thus the murderer of Balder,
unwitting instrument though he was, atoned for the crime with his
blood, according to the code of the true Norseman.

The Signification of the Story

The physical explanation of this myth is to be found either in the
daily setting of the sun (Balder), which sinks beneath the western
waves, driven away by darkness (Hodur), or in the ending of the short
Northern summer and the long reign of the winter season. "Balder
represents the bright and clear summer, when twilight and daylight
kiss each other and go hand in hand in these Northern latitudes."

"Balder's pyre, of the sun a mark,
Holy hearth red staineth;
Yet, soon dies its last faint spark,
Darkly then Hoder reigneth."

Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).

"His death by Hodu