a, the
rollers underneath bursting into flame, and the whole earth trembling
with the shock. Thor was so angry at the uproar that he would have
killed the giantess on the spot if he had not been held back by the
other gods. The great ship floated on the sea as she had often done
before, when Balder, full of life and beauty, set all her sails and was
borne joyfully across the tossing seas. Slowly and solemnly the dead god
was carried on board, and as Nanna, his faithful wife, saw her husband
borne for the last time from the earth which he had made dear to her and
beautiful to all men, her heart broke with sorrow, and they laid her
beside Balder on the funeral pyre.

Since the world began no one had seen such a funeral. No bell tolled, no
long procession of mourners moved across the hills, but all the worlds
lay under a deep shadow, and from every quarter came those who had loved
or feared Balder. There at the very water's edge stood Odin himself, the
ravens flying about his head, and on his majestic face a gloom that no
sun would ever lighten again; and there was Frigg, the desolate mother,
whose son had already gone so far that he would never come back to her;
there was Frey standing sad and stern in his chariot; there was Freyja,
the goddess of love, from whose eyes fell a shining rain of tears;
there, too, was Heimdal on his horse Goldtop; and around all these
glorious ones from Asgard crowded the children of Joetunheim, grim
mountain-giants seamed with scars from Thor's hammer, and frost-giants
who saw in the death of Balder the coming of that long winter in which
they should reign through all the worlds.

A deep hush fell on all created things, and every eye was fixed on the
great ship riding near the shore, and on the funeral pyre rising from
the deck crowned with the forms of Balder and Nanna. Suddenly a gleam of
light flashed over the water; the pile had been kindled, and the flames,
creeping slowly at first, climbed faster and faster until they met over
the dead and rose skyward. A lurid light filled the heavens and shone on
the sea, and in the brightness of it the gods looked pale and sad, and
the circle of giants grew darker and more portentous. Thor struck the
fast burning pyre with his consecrating hammer, and Odin cast into it
the wonderful ring Draupner. Higher and higher leaped the flames, more
and more desolate grew the scene; at last they began to sink, the
funeral pyre was consumed. Balder had vanishe