One day a strange old woman came to the palace of Frigga and asked to have speech with her. The goddess was sitting with her maidens spinning, and when the old woman was admitted to her presence, she spoke to her kindly and asked the object of her visit.
"I have come, lady," said the old woman, who was really Loki in disguise, "to learn what is going on here in Asgard that the shouts of joy reach even to the earth. I hear laughter and cheering in the court where the gods are at their games. Tell me, what does it mean?" Then Frigga smiled happily and said, "It means that the gods are hurling their battle-axes at Balder and trying to wound him, but he stands before them unhurt, for everything on earth has sworn to me to do him no harm."
"Has everything indeed made you this promise?" asked Loki.
"Yes," answered Frigga; "everything except a little plant called the mistletoe, and this looked so small and weak that I did not ask it to promise."
"And does this mistletoe grow far from here?" continued the pretended old woman.
"Just at the gates of Asgard," answered Frigga. And Loki, having learned what he wished, left the palace exulting in the ease with which he had deceived the unsuspecting goddess. Laying aside his disguise, he sought the place where the mistletoe grew, and cutting off a branch, he shaped it into an arrow. Then he went to join the gods in their sport.
Just outside the circle of the players stood Höder, the brother of Balder, silent and alone, for he was blind and could not share in the games. Going up to him, Loki said,--
"Why do you not join in the sport, Höder, and throw some missile at the wonderful Balder who now bears a charmed life?"
"Because I cannot see where he is standing," answered Höder, "and besides, I have no weapon to throw."
"If that is all," said Loki, "come with me and I will give you an arrow and help you shoot it." So he led Höder forward, and the blind god followed him willingly, for he dreamed of no evil.
Then Loki put the arrow into his hand and directed his aim so well that the fatal shaft flew straight to Balder's heart, and in a moment the beautiful god lay dead.
There was mourning now in Asgard, and over all the world. The sun no longer shone with its accustomed brightness; the birds stopped their singing, and the flowers drooped their heads; even the beasts felt the sadness that lay upon the earth, and crouched silent in their dens. Everything that loved the shining Balder now wept and mourned for him. Then the gods arrayed his body in the finest cloth of gold, and brought it down to the sea, where Balder's ship[34] lay close to the water's edge. Very sadly they laid the body upon its deck, and heaped around the beloved form rings and chains of finest gold, jewels and weapons such as warriors love. When Nanna, Balder's wife, saw the body wrapped in readiness for burning, her heart broke from her great grief, and the gods laid her, dead, beside her husband.