In the golden age of Asgard, no deity was more beloved than Baldr, the son of Odin and Frigg. He was the god of light, joy, and purity, and his presence made the world of the Aesir bright. Beside him stood Nanna, the daughter of Nepr, a goddess of grace and devotion whose love for her husband was the foundation of their home in the hall of Breidablik. Their lives were a testament to the harmony that the gods enjoyed before the shadows of prophecy began to lengthen. However, the peace of Asgard was shattered when Baldr began to suffer from dark, recurring dreams of his own demise. These omens troubled the All-father, Odin, who descended to the gates of Hel to consult a long-dead seeress, only to find that the halls of the dead were already being prepared for his son’s arrival.
Determined to thwart fate, Frigg traversed the nine worlds, extracting an oath from every living thing, every stone, every metal, and every disease that they would never harm Baldr. Fire and water, iron and silver, trees and beasts all swore the vow. Believing her son invincible, the gods established a new pastime: they would stand in a circle and hurl weapons, stones, and heavy objects at Baldr, laughing as every projectile veered away or struck him without leaving a mark. Only Loki, the cunning shapeshifter, harbored resentment for this display of divine immunity. Disguising himself as an old woman, he tricked Frigg into revealing that she had overlooked one small, seemingly insignificant thing: the mistletoe, which she deemed too young and harmless to demand an oath from.
Loki fashioned a spear, or in some tellings an arrow, from the wood of the mistletoe. He returned to the assembly where the gods were continuing their game. There he found Höðr, the blind brother of Baldr, standing apart from the festivities. With honeyed words, Loki offered to help Höðr join the sport, placing the mistletoe weapon in his hand and guiding his aim. When the projectile flew, it did not bounce off Baldr's chest. Instead, it pierced him through, and the god of light fell dead upon the green grass of Asgard. A silence more terrible than any scream fell over the gods. They were paralyzed by grief, unable to take vengeance in that moment because the ground was a place of sanctuary. Among the mourners, none felt the void more sharply than Nanna. While the other gods wept or stood in shock, Nanna’s world simply ended. The light that had defined her existence had been extinguished, leaving her in a darkness that no divine power could illuminate.
As the Aesir recovered from their initial stupor, they prepared for the most magnificent funeral the cosmos had ever seen. They carried Baldr’s body down to the seashore, where his massive ship, Hringhorni, lay on the sands. This vessel was the largest in the world, and the gods intended it to be his funeral pyre. However, when they tried to launch the ship into the water, it would not budge. Even the strength of Thor and the collective might of the Aesir could not slide the hull across the grains of the beach. In their desperation, they sent for the giantess Hyrrokkin from Jötunheim. She arrived riding a gargantuan wolf, using poisonous snakes as reins. With a single, disdainful shove, she sent the ship flying into the waves with such force that the rollers caught fire and the earth trembled. This display of raw power only served to emphasize the finality of the situation.
Nanna stood on the shore, watching as the body of her husband was lifted onto the deck of Hringhorni. The gods piled the ship high with treasures: golden arm-rings, fine tapestries, and Baldr’s own horse with all its trappings. Odin approached the pyre and placed his magical ring, Draupnir, upon his son’s chest, whispering a secret word into the dead god's ear that no other would ever know. As Nanna looked upon the face of her husband, the reality of the eternal separation took hold of her. The myths record that her heart did not merely ache; it physically gave way under the pressure of her sorrow. Her pulse faltered, and she collapsed. The life force that had sustained her as a goddess of the Aesir was severed by the sheer weight of her mourning. She died there on the sand, not from a weapon or a curse, but from the purity of her devotion.
Recognizing the tragic beauty of her sacrifice, the gods lifted Nanna’s body and laid her beside Baldr on the ship. They believed it was only right that the wife who could not live without her husband should accompany him into the unknown. Thor then stood forward and hallowed the pyre with his hammer, Mjölnir. As he did so, a dwarf named Litr ran clumsily before his feet; in his misplaced rage and grief, Thor kicked the dwarf into the flames. The fire was lit, and Hringhorni drifted out into the dark Atlantic waters, a floating mountain of flame that illuminated the coast of Norway. From the heights of the Borre mounds, it is said the ancestors watched as the light of the sun-god vanished beneath the horizon, marking the beginning of the long winter that precedes Ragnarok.