Pagan easter, norse Jesus, the death or Baldur and the beginning of ragnarrok

[NaturaNaturans]

Baldur, son of Odin, was the most beloved of the gods. He is sometimes reffered to as the norse Jesus. He is beauty personified, and also asscociated with easter.

 

The death of Baldur is one of the more famous stories of the Eddas. Baldur had a dream about his death, and when Odin and Freya (his parrents), got to know about this, traveled far and wide and asked every stone, plant, river, animal and an all other beings to promise not to harm him. They all agreed.

 

As Baldr now had become immortal, the gods made a game out of throwing things at him. Loki (trickster and a jotun, but never the less a god) disguised himself, as tricksters do, and asked Freya: did everything promise not to harm him? To witch she responded yes, everything but the mistletoe, but why worry about something so small and insignificant? 

Loki, still in disguise, approached the blind god Hothr and gave him an arrow with the tip of a mistletoe, and invited him to join the game. The blind god fired his bow, and Baldr died. All beings where in great distress, because they knew that the death marked the (beginning) of the end, ragnarrok. Fimbulvinter (the great winter, lasting for three seasons) set in. The sun disappears, laws and morals falls away. The struggle of survival. Men starve, brothers fight brothers. The forces of utgard march against the Asgard, and mankind joins the battle as well. The midgard serpent and Thor fights each other, leaving both dead. Fenrir swallows Odin and his men, the einherjar (those who died in battle and went to valhalla). All giants, gods and men die in this battle. The world is submerged in water. 
Baldr, now in the underworld ruled by Lokis daughter Hel, promised to realise him on the condition that the whole world. 
Lif and Lifthrasir, destined to survive Ragnarrok, ventured out in time and went on to populate the earth. They worshipped Balder as their main god.
Now, there are various accounts, a lot of unknown elements and also errors in my retteling of it, but i think its pretty cool. The brave god of beauty, associated with spring, dies on the hands of a blind men, tricked by a Loki and killed by an overlooked/insignificant plant. When the god of easter dies, the long winter sets in, and all hell breaks loose. The world cries, hell sets loose and both the forces of evil and good is killed. Two humans remain, life, and their main deity is the god of beauty and spring himself...

 

Spoiler

Translated by Jackson Crawford(Völuspá Stanzas 43-56).

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Fenrir howls terribly

before the doors to Hel;

the wolf will break its bonds

and run.

I know much wisdom,

I see deep in the future,

all the way to Ragnarok,

a dark day for the gods.

 

Brothers will fight one another

and kill one another,

cousins will break peace

with one another,

the world will be a hard place to live in.

It will be an age of adultery,

an age of the axe, an age of the sword,

an age of storms, an age of wolves,

shields will be cloven.

Before the world sinks into the sea,

there will be no man left

who is true to another.

 

The giants are at play,

and the gods’ fate is kindled

at the blast

of Gjallarhorn:

Heimdall blows that horn hard,

holds it high aloft,

Odin speaks

with Mimir’s head.

 

The old tree sighs

when the giant shakes it—

Yggdrasil still stands,

but it trembles.

 

Fenrir howls terribly

before the doors to Hel;

the wolf will break its bonds

and run.

I know much wisdom,

I see deep in the future,

all the way to Ragnarok,

a dark day for the gods.

 

Hrym advances from the east

with a shield before him,

and the Midgard-serpent

is in a monstrous rage.

The serpent beats the waves,

and the eagle screams eagerly,

splitting corpses with its pale beak.

Naglfar, the giants’ ship, is released.

 

That ship sails from the east,

bearing giants

over the sea,

and Loki is its captain.

The giants are coming

together with Fenrir,

and Loki too is with them

on that voyage.

 

What news from the gods?

What news from the elves?

All Jotunheim is roaring,

the Aesir are in counsel,

and the dwarves,

creatures of the mountains,

tremble by their doors of stone.

Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?

 

Surt comes from the south

with a bright light in his hand,

yes, the sun shines upon

the sword in his grasp.

The mountains collapse,

the trolls fall,

men walk the road to Hel,

and the skies divide above.

 

Then comes

the second sorrow of Frigg,

when Odin goes

to fight the wolf,

and Frey goes to fight the giant Surt.

Then Odin, Frigg’s husband,

will fall to Fenrir.

 

Then comes the great

son of Odin, Vithar,

to fight, to avenge

his father on the wolf.

He shoves his sword

into the mouth of Fenrir,

all the way to the heart,

and thus Odin is avenged.

Then Thor comes,

Earth’s son,

Odin’s son,

to fight the Midgard-serpent—

the protector of Midgard

will kill that serpent in his rage.

But all humankind

will die out of the world

when Thor falls

after only nine steps,

struck down by the venom

of the honorless serpent.

 

The sun turns black,

the earth sinks into the sea,

the bright stars

fall out of the sky.

Flames scorch

the leaves of Yggdrasil,

a great bonfire

reaches to the highest clouds.

 

Fenrir howls terribly

before the doors to Hel;

the wolf will break its bonds

and run.

I know much wisdom,

I see deep in the future,

all the way to Ragnarok,

a dark day for the gods.

 

And, lastly, there is a deity that we know almost nothing about. We know that he is the son of Odin, will avenge his father and kill Fenrir, the wolf. Fenrir is both the son of Loki, and Loki is at times called Fenris Fenrir. Fenrir (Old Norse 'fen-dweller')[3] or Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse "Fenrir's wolf", often translated "Fenris-wolf"),

 

kind of poetic, no?