Sacred Writing
Soul's Journey, Lindisfarne
Gospel, 700 c.e.
Norse
Balder's Dream
Balder, son of Odin and Frigg has disturbing dreams, the meaning of which cannot be unravelled by the Gods. 'I will go myself,' said Allfather, Balder's father, 'and return with the meaning.' The magician, old as time, stood up and hurried out of the council. He saddled Sleipnir, galloped over the quivering rainbow, and took the long, long track that led north from Midgard down into the gloom and the swirling mists of Niflheim.
Hel's hound heard Odin coming. The hair on Garm's throat and chest was caked with blood and he bayed from his cliff cave at the entrance to the underworld. The Master of Runes took no notice. He galloped so hard that the frozen ground thrummed under Sleipnir's eight hooves, and he did not let up until he had treached Hel's forbidding hall.
Here Odin dismounted. He peered into the hall - it was packed out with the dead, and gleaming with gold rings and gold ornaments - and then led Sleipnir round to the east door near which a seeress was buried. Odin stood beside her mound and fixed his one glittering eye upon it, the seeress rose out of the earth and loomed over him.
'Who,' she moaned, 'who is the stranger who forces me up and unearths me to sorrows? Snow has settled on me, rain has lashed me, dew has seeped through me; I have long been dead.'
[Odin lies] 'My name is Vegtam the Wanderer,' Odin said, 'and I am Valtam's son. Give me news of Hel; I have travelled already through the other worlds. Why are gold rings strewn along the benches in Hel's hall and why is the whole place decorated with gold? Who are you expecting?'
'The shining mead,' said the seeress, 'is brewed for Balder; a shield covers the cauldron. For all their glory, the gods will be filled with despair. I was unwilling to speak and I will say no more now.'
The Death of Balder
The gods and goddesses gathered in the shadow of Balder's terrible dreams, dreams that threatened to pitch him into the darkness for ever. Not one of them doubted his life was in danger and for a long time they discussed how to protect him.
The gods and goddesses thought of all the ways in which one can die; they named each earth-thing, sea-thing and sky-thing that can cause sudden death. Then Balder's mother, Frigg, began to travel through the nine worlds and get each and every substance to swear an oath that it would not harm Balder.
Fire swore an oath. Water swore an oath. Iron and every other kind of metal swore an oath. The stones swore oaths. Nothing could stay Frigg from her mission or resist her sweet troubled persuasion. Earth swore an oath. The trees swore oaths. Each kind of illness swore an oath. Balder's mother was untiring and painstaking. All the animals swore an oath and so did every sidling snake.
Then the gods and goddesses met again and Frigg satisfied them that she had done as they asked, and that nothing in creation would harm Balder. Kenneth Crosley- Holland, The Norse Myths Pantheon Books, 1980, pp. 147-150.