ovable is Balder, the Northern Sun-god, than
his Grecian counterpart, the lord of the unerring bow, the Southern
genius of light, and poesy, and music! Balder dwelt in his palace of
Breidablick, or Broadview; and in the magical spring-time of the North,
when the fair maiden Iduna breathed into the blue air her genial
breath, he set imprisoned Nature free, and filled the sky with silvery
haze, and called home the stork and crane, summoning forth the tender
buds, and clothing the bare branches with delicate green. "Balder is
the mildest, the wisest, and the most eloquent of all the AEsir," says
the "Edda." A voice of wail went through the palaces of Asgard when
Balder was slain by the mistletoe dart. Hermod rode down to the kingdom
of Hela, or Death, to ransom the lost one. Meantime his body was set
adrift on a floating funeral pyre. Hermod would have succeeded in his
mission, had not Lok, the Spirit of Evil, interposed to thwart him. For
this, Lok was bound in prison, with cords made of the twisted
intestines of one of his own sons; and he will remain imprisoned until
the Twilight of the Gods, the consummation of all things.

On the shoulders of Odin, the supreme Scandinavian deity, sat two
ravens, whispering in his ears. These two ravens are called Hugin and
Munin, or Thought and Memory. These "stately ravens of the saintly days
of yore" flew, each day, all over the world, gathering "facts and
figures," doubtless for their August master. It is a beautiful fable,
and reminds one of Milton's "thoughts which wander through eternity."
The dove of the Ark, and the bird which perched on the shoulder of the
old Plutarchan hero Sertorius, are recalled by this Scandinavian
legend:--

"Hugin and Munin
Each down take their flight
Earth's fields over."

Nobler birds, these dark ravens of the Northern Jove, than the
bolt-bearing eagle of his Grecian brother. So much deeper, more
significant, and musical are the myths of the stern, dark, and tender
North than those of the bright and fickle South!

Notwithstanding that Valhalla was full of invincible heroes, and that
the celestial city of Asgard was the abode of the chief gods, still it
had a watchman who dwelt in a tower at the end of the Bridge Bifroest.
Heimdall was his name, and he was endowed with the sharpest ear and eye
that ever warder possessed. He could hear grass and wool grow with the
utmost distinctness. The AEsir, notwithstanding their supreme position,
had n