The Death of Baldur

Oh hey! That one hurt!

This week's legend is from the Norse library again. The Death of Baldur is a trickster tale where Loki just feels like being a jerk, so he  causes the first sign of the end of the world. It's a classic trickster thing to do.

This tale begins with Baldur feeling worried that he's about to die. Since he brings this up so publicly, Loki decides to do something to mess with him. Loki has a pretty dark sense of humor. So, he finds the one thing that didn't promise not to harm Baldur. And sharpens it. He also manages to get a blind god to throw the mistletoe dart at Baldur, so Loki can't be directly blamed.

In this story, we see a more serious impact of a trickster's actions. Loki doesn't care about consequences. If the rest of the gods know Balder's death will lead to Ragnarok (the end of the world), then Loki knows it as well. He just decides it would be too funny to kill Baldur with the one thing no one expected to be able to harm him. To me, that encapsulates a trickster perfectly. It doesn't matter what will happen later, Loki just wants the fun of the moment. Too bad his moment of fun ends the world, but these things happen, occasionally. Especially when you're Loki.

Have a folktale you want me to write a post about? Comment below and I'll write about it!