Baldr
Norse god associated with light, beauty, love and happiness
Baldr in Old Norse (later Balder in Mainland Nordic, Baldur in Insular Nordic), Bældæġ in Old English, Balder or Palter in Old High German, is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli.
During the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. Compiled in Iceland during the 13th century, but based on older Old Norse poetry, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda contain numerous references to the death of Baldr as both a great tragedy to the Æsir and a harbinger of Ragnarök.
According to Gylfaginning, a book of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Baldr's wife is Nanna and their son is Forseti. Baldr had the greatest ship ever built, Hringhorni, and there is no place more beautiful than his hall, Breidablik.
Name
The Old Norse theonym Baldr (lit. 'bold'; 'brave, defiant'; also 'lord, prince') and its Germanic cognates – Old English Bældæg and Old High German Balder (or Palter) – are generally derived from Proto-Germanic *Balðraz ('Hero, Prince'; cf. Old Norse mann-baldr, 'great man'; Old English bealdor, 'prince, hero'), itself a derivative of *balþaz, meaning 'brave'. Rudolf Simek has noted, however, that this etymology would suggest a warlike or forceful character, a portrayal not clearly supported by the mythological sources.
This etymology was originally proposed by Jacob Grimm (1835), who also suggested a comparison with Lithuanian báltas ('white', also the name of a light-god), positing a semantic development from 'white' to 'shining' then 'strong'.
The public source identifies “Baldr” as norse god associated with light, beauty, love and happiness. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Baldr, Norse and associated.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131658. VIAF identifies the subject as 42631266. The Library of Congress control number is no2014097853. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baldr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.