Baldr (Old Norse: Baldr, also Baldur) is the son of Odin and Frigg, described in Gylfaginning as the most beautiful, wise, and well-spoken of the Æsir, dwelling in the hall Breiðablik. His death constitutes one of the central mythological events in the Norse cosmological narrative and is among the most consistently attested episodes across multiple primary sources. Gylfaginning narrates the full sequence: Baldr suffers premonitory dreams; Frigg extracts oaths from all things in creation; the gods amuse themselves by hurling weapons at the invulnerable Baldr; Loki discovers that mistletoe was overlooked; he guides the blind Höðr’s throw; Baldr is killed and sent to Hel.

Völuspá references Baldr’s death as a pivotal event leading to Ragnarök, confirming that this narrative predates Snorri. The Eddic poem Baldrs draumar explicitly recounts Odin’s journey to consult a dead völva about Baldr’s fate. The attempted negotiation for Baldr’s return fails when Þökk (Loki in disguise) refuses to weep. His wife Nanna dies of grief at his funeral pyre.

Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum (Book III) presents a dramatically different version in which Balderus is a heroic figure in rivalry with Høtherus — an account that diverges substantially from the Eddic tradition. After Ragnarök, Baldr is prophesied to return from Hel and survive into the renewed world — a detail in both Völuspá and Gylfaginning that has attracted scholarly attention given its structural resemblance to Christian resurrection narrative.