Why did Balder the Norse god die?
At one point Balder had a foreboding dream. Odin rode to Hel’s realm to wake a volva from the dead to find out the meaning of Balder’s dream. Frigg asked all things to swear not to hurt Balder but didn’t ask the mistletoe because it was so young. Loki, diguised as an old woman, visited Frigg and found out Balder was invunerable to everything but mistletoe. Loki then made a dart out of mistletoe and tricked the blind god Hod into throwing it at Balder — all the other gods were playing games by throwing various items at Balder –, thus killing him. Hermod rode to Hel’s realm and got her to agree to let Balder return to the living if all things would weep for him. One giantess named Thokk, Loki in disguise, refused to weep, so he remained dead and was cremated on his funeral boat, hringhorni. He is supposed to come back to life after the Ragnarok.
