aldur?
Answer, Volva, prophetess!"

"Thou seest far, but thou canst not see clearly. Thou art Odin. I can
see clearly but I cannot see far. Now let me go back to my sleep with
the Dead."

"Volva, prophetess!" Odin cried out again.

But the voice from amongst the shrouded ones said, "Thou canst not wake
me any more until the fires of Muspelheim blaze above my head."

Then there was silence in the field of the Dead, and Odin turned
Sleipner, his steed, and for four days, through the gloom and silence,
he journeyed back to Asgard.

Frigga had felt the fear that Odin had felt. She looked toward Baldur,
and the shade of Hela came between her and her son. But then she heard
the birds sing in the Peace Stead and she knew that none of all the
things in the world would injure Baldur.

And to make it sure she went to all the things that could hurt him and
from each of them she took an oath that it would not injure Baldur, the
Well-Beloved. She took an oath from fire and from water, from iron and
from all metals, from earths and stones and great trees, from birds and
beasts and creeping things, from poisons and diseases. Very readily they
all gave the oath that they would work no injury on Baldur.

Then when Frigga went back and told what she had accomplished the gloom
that had lain on Asgard lifted. Baldur would be spared to them. Hela
might have a place prepared in her dark habitation, but neither fire
nor water, nor iron nor any metals, nor earths nor stones nor great
woods, nor birds nor beasts nor creeping things, nor poisons nor
diseases, would help her to bring him down. "Hela has no arms to draw
you to her," the AEsir and the Vanir cried to Baldur.

Hope was renewed for them and they made games to honor Baldur. They had
him stand in the Peace Stead and they brought against him all the things
that had sworn to leave him hurtless. And neither the battle-axe flung
full at him, nor the stone out of the sling, nor the burning brand, nor
the deluge of water would injure the beloved of Asgard. The AEsir and the
Vanir laughed joyously to see these things fall harmlessly from him
while a throng came to join them in the games; Dwarfs and friendly
Giants.

But Loki the Hater came in with that throng. He watched the games from
afar. He saw the missiles and the weapons being flung and he saw Baldur
stand smiling and happy under the strokes of metal and stones and great
woods. He wondered at the sight, but he knew that he mig