Balder is renowned for his countless heroic deeds and is regarded as the noblest of the Asgardian gods, as well as their greatest warrior after the thunder god Thor, who has long been his closest friend. Despite Balder’s lack of romantic interest, he has been persistently pursued as a lover by the sorceress Kamilla, the Norn Queen.
Ancient prophecies foretold that Balder’s death would help usher in Ragnarök, the destruction of Asgard and its people. In response, Odin, ruler of Asgard, ordered his wife Frigga to render Balder invulnerable to harm. Frigga cast powerful enchantments that protected Balder from injury by any living being or inanimate object while he remained within the Asgardian dimension. Mythic accounts describe her as extracting oaths from all things not to harm him, as though they were sentient. The sole exception to these protections was mistletoe. This omission was likely not due to forgetfulness, as Frigga later made Balder immune to mistletoe once his vulnerability became known. It is more probable that this weakness was an unavoidable consequence of the broader spell that shielded him from all other sources of harm.
Loki, the god of mischief, learned both of the prophecy linking Balder’s death to Ragnarök and of his vulnerability to mistletoe. Intent on triggering the apocalypse, Loki deceived the blind god Hoder into firing an arrow tipped with mistletoe at Balder. The blow proved fatal in appearance, though Odin’s power prevented Balder from truly dying, leaving him instead in a state akin to suspended animation. Even so, Balder’s spirit traveled to Hel, one of the Asgardian realms of the dead, where he was horrified by the suffering endured by the souls of many he had slain in battle.
Odin eventually restored Balder fully to life, but his hair turned white as a lasting mark of his ordeal in Hel. Balder’s beloved Nanna sacrificed her life to save him from being forced into marriage with Kamilla, a loss that left Balder profoundly grief-stricken. He resolved never again to speak of Nanna or the circumstances of her death. Overwhelmed by sorrow and by the visions of the afterlife he had witnessed, Balder renounced the path of the warrior and attempted, unsuccessfully, to dull his pain through indulgence in food, gaining significant weight. In despair, he rode into the desert hoping to die.
Instead, Balder encountered the Norns, the three goddesses who govern fate. They granted him a vision that renewed his faith in life and reaffirmed the necessity of his continued existence. Balder returned to Asgard, where Odin sent him to seek Kamilla’s aid in the Asgardians’ war against Surtur and the forces of Muspelheim. Balder succeeded in this mission, and his relationship with Kamilla appears to have changed as a result. Through renewed discipline and rigorous training, Balder has since returned to his former physical condition.
