Myths
Overview
There are the myths of Beowulf and The Death of Baldr in the document.
Myths
Beowulf
The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, then kills Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he found in her lair.
Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means "remnant of valour", dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour.
Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things", a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been ongoing. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors form a brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. The poem begins and ends with funerals: at the beginning of the poem for Scyld Scefing and at the end for Beowulf.
The Death of Baldr
Other than his great courage and honor, he is known primarily for the myth about his death. It started when he had dreams about his death, which caused his mother, Frigg, to extract an oath from every object on Earth not to harm her son Baldr. All agreed that none of their kind would ever hurt or assist in hurting Baldr, and afterward the other gods used his seeming invincibility to practice throwing knives and shooting arrows at him.
This plan was almost perfect except that she had missed one thing that she had thought too insignificant, the weed mistletoe. The trickster God, Loki, took a disguise and asked Frigg if anything could harm Baldr. Thinking nothing of it, she told him about the mistletoe. Loki immediately left to gather some of the weed and make a dart out of it. At the same time, several of the gods were playing a game with Baldr where they were throwing projectiles at him in an attempt to strike him; however, since all objects had vowed to never harm Baldr, he could not be touched by the gods' attempts. Loki gave the dart of mistletoe to Baldr's blind twin brother, Höðr, so that he, too, could participate in the game. Not knowing what was in his hand, and having the aid of Loki's aim, he launched the dart into Baldr's chest, killing him on the spot. Although somewhat innocent, he was later slain by the new son of Óðinn and Rindr, Váli, whom had been born, and grew up in one day, for the single purpose of avenging Baldr's death.
The other gods lamented his death, and Óðinn sent Hermóðr to the goddess of death, Hel, to plead for Baldr's return to life. She said in reply that she would let him live again if everyone in the world, alive or dead, would weep for him. Loki had now disguised himself as the witch Thokk (in some versions he was a Giantess), and was the only one who would not weep for him, so Baldr stayed with Hel.
Now the gods began the funeral for the God of Light and placed his body, wrapped in crimson, upon his ship, the Hringhorni, as a funeral pyre. Alongside him on the pyre was his wife, Nanna, who died of heartache at his passing. Also on his pyre was all of his possessions and his horse. The ship was pushed out to sea by the giantess Hyrrokin.
Loki was punished for his integral role in the death of the most beloved of the gods. He was then hunted down, tied to three rocks, and a serpent was tied above his face, which would continuously drip venom onto his face until Ragnarök.