In this blog and I breakdown the Baldr story. I will first break it down in a short twenty-first century fashion and then I will break the story down by what the names of the individual god’s mean.
A short overview, Baldr is the son of Odin and Frigga. He is married to the goddess Nanna Neprsdottir. Baldr is loved and highly respected by all the gods. He is almost invincible, and the gods often spend their days hitting him with swords and throwing rocks and spears at him. They all marvel at his ability to suspend skuld(obligation).
Then one day Loki gets jealous of Baldr’s invincibility and the attention he is getting. So Loki tricks Baldr’s brother Hodr Blindi into shooting Baldr with an arrow made of the only thing in the nine worlds that can kill him.
This of course makes Odin mad, and he goes on a quest to find a way to get vengeance. He conceives a son named Vali who kills Hodr. End of short overview.
Interesting story as it stands, but what does it tell us about improving ourselves?
I will now go back over the story filling in the names of all the gods and see how that changes the story.
Baldr -means courageous
Breidablik - name of Baldr's home - means broad vision, as in wide perception.
Nanna neprsdottir - Baldr's wife
Nanna - means to understand
Nepr - means ring.
Ring symbolizes completion, fulfillment, and wholeness
Hodr Blindi - name means blind strife or ignorant aggression.
The courage from wide perception was married to understanding that derives from wholeness, fulfillment, and completion. Baldr, the courage, loved by the gods, in union with his understanding, represents who we can become. Who we were during the Golden Age of man. This all came to an end when Loki, who represents passion, was overcome with jealousy. So Loki guided the arms of Hodr, blind strife or ignorant aggression, to kill Baldr.
Baldr goes to Hel and lives in the High Hall. There is where he must stay until he is avenged. Here vengeance means to put blind strife or ignorant aggression on the pyre. To accomplish this Odin conceives Vali, the choice. Only he can bring ignorant aggression to the pyre.
We must engage our spirit in order to make the “choice”. We must first control our aggression and fear, then we can make the choice to remove, put them on the pyre, so we can reach our potential.
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