Loki and Baldr

Today I’m going to talk about Loki with you.

When concerning Loki, there must be some words jumped out from our mind, such as handsome, intelligent, mysterious, magical, incredible, and even foxy, tricky, or naughty which are mainly from the stereotype of Marvel's comics. But the real Loki in Nose Mythology must be different. Loki's relation with the gods varies by source: sometimes he assists the gods and sometimes behaves in a malicious manner towards them. Whatever, he is definitely interpreted as an antagonist or villain in terms of various mythologies.

So today, let me take you to see an another Loki, the story of Loki and Baldur.

The second son of Odin is Baldur, and good things are to be said of him. He is best, and all praise him; he is so fair of feature, and so bright, that light shines from him.  

However,  he is primarily known for the story of his death, which is likely to be the blasting fuse ultimately leading to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarök (诸神之黄昏).

He had a dream of his own death and his mother had the same dreams, which depressed him and his mother. So his mother Frigg made every object on earth vow never to hurt Baldr. All objects made this vow except a tiny plant, mistletoe（槲寄生）.

When Loki, the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant. He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of throwing objects at Baldr, which would bounce off without harming him, even for Thor’s Hammer.

Loki gave the spear to Baldr's brother, the blind god Höðr（黑暗之神霍尔）, who then threw the spear at Baldr but unconsciously killed him with it.  

Baldr was ceremonially burnt upon his ship, Hringhorni, the largest of all ships. And Loki, was punished by Odin in a binding until Ragnarök.