Höðr (Old Norse: Höðr) is the blind son of Odin who, guided by Loki, kills his brother Baldr with a mistletoe dart — one of the central catastrophic events in the Norse mythological narrative. He appears in Gylfaginning, Völuspá, and Baldrs draumar; in each case his role is essentially the same: the unwitting instrument of Baldr’s death, blind and manipulated by Loki. Gylfaginning provides the complete narrative: the gods amuse themselves by hurling weapons at the invulnerable Baldr when Loki gives Höðr a dart made of mistletoe and offers to guide his throw. Höðr kills Baldr and is subsequently killed in turn by Váli. Both return to the renewed world after Ragnarök.

Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum (Book III) presents a dramatically different tradition in which Høtherus is a mortal hero and active rival of Balderus for the woman Nanna. Saxo presents Höðr not as blind or passive but as a capable and culpable protagonist — a divergence so significant that many scholars treat the two traditions as fundamentally distinct mythological streams.