Baldur, nicknamed "the beautiful", is known only for the myth surrounding his death, but that tale is one of the most moving in all religious literature.
He had a dream of his own death. Since the gods' dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, and his mother Frigg made every object on earth vow never to hurt Baldur. All but one, an insignificant weed called the mistletoe, made this vow. Friggr had thought it too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow. When Loki heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant. He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of hurling objects at Baldur, which would bounce off without harming him. Loki gave the spear to Baldur's brother, the blind god Hod, who then inadvertently killed his brother with it.
Upon Frigg's entreaties, Hel promised to release Baldur from the underworld if all objects alive and dead would weep for him. And all did, except a giantess, who refused to mourn the slain god. And thus Baldur had to remain in the underworld, not to emerge until after Ragnarok, when he and his brother Hod would be reconciled and rule the new earth together.
When the gods discovered that the giantess had been Loki in disguise, they hunted him down and bound him to three rocks. Then they tied a serpent above him, the venom of which dripped onto his face. His wife Sigyn gathered the venom in a bowl, but from time to time she had to turn away to empty it, at which point the poison would drip onto Loki, who writhed in pain, thus causing earthquakes. He would free himself, however, in time to attack the gods at Ragnarok.
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