{
  "id": "baldr",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Baldr",
  "summary": "Son of Odin and Frigg, \"the bleeding god\", killed by his brother Hoth with a shaft of mistletoe; avenged by Vali, born for that purpose and one night old when he fought; mourned by Frigg in Fensalir; expected back after Ragnarok, when \"Baldr comes back\" to dwell with Hoth in the new world.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "norse",
    "deities",
    "aesir",
    "dying-gods"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "child_of",
      "target": "odin"
    },
    {
      "rel": "child_of",
      "target": "frigg"
    },
    {
      "rel": "sibling_of",
      "target": "thor"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "loki"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "hel"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "ragnarok"
    },
    {
      "rel": "member_of",
      "target": "aesir"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "poetic-edda"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Who is Baldr?",
    "How did Baldr die?",
    "Who killed Baldr?",
    "Who avenged Baldr?",
    "Does Baldr return after Ragnarok?",
    "What are Baldr's dreams?",
    "Where does Baldr live?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Baldr is \"The son of Othin\" (Voluspo 32; Baldrs draumar 8) and Frigg's son by her own words, \"If a son like Baldr were by me now\" (Lokasenna 27); \"The father of Baldr was the heir of Bur\" (Hyndluljoth 31).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Voluspo tells the death in two stanzas: the seeress sees \"Baldr, the bleeding god\", the mistletoe \"Full grown in strength\", and from that slender branch \"a harmful shaft that Hoth should hurl\" (Voluspo 32–33).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Baldrs draumar gives the same killer by prophecy: Odin rides to Hel to wake a dead seeress, who says the mead is brewed for Baldr and that \"Hoth thither bears the far-famed branch, / He shall the bane of Baldr become\" (Baldrs draumar 1–9).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "The avenger is Vali, Odin's son by Rind, who fights \"one night old\" and neither washes his hands nor combs his hair until Baldr's slayer is burned (Voluspo 33–34; Baldrs draumar 11; Hyndluljoth 30).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "Loki claims responsibility — \"Mine is the blame that Baldr no more / Thou seest ride home\" (Lokasenna 28) — but neither Voluspo nor Baldrs draumar names him in the killing; the two witnesses differ on whether anyone stands behind Hoth.",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "Baldr returns after Ragnarok: when the earth rises green again, \"All ills grow better, and Baldr comes back; / Baldr and Hoth dwell in Hropt's battle-hall\" (Voluspo 59–62).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "Baldr's dwelling is Breithablik, \"the land I know that lies so fair, / And from evil fate is free\" (Grimnismol 12).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "Both poems that tell the death name Hoth and the mistletoe (Voluspo 33; Baldrs draumar 9); the blind Hoth guided by Loki is the Prose Edda's story.",
    "The vengeance is as fixed as the death — Vali, one night old (Voluspo 33; Baldrs draumar 11).",
    "Baldr is the god who comes back; his return is part of the new world (Voluspo 62)."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "Who killed Baldr?",
      "claim": "c2"
    },
    {
      "q": "What are Baldr's dreams?",
      "claim": "c3"
    },
    {
      "q": "Who avenged Baldr?",
      "claim": "c4"
    },
    {
      "q": "Does Baldr return after Ragnarok?",
      "claim": "c6"
    },
    {
      "q": "Where does Baldr live?",
      "claim": "c7"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Separates the two eddic witnesses to Baldr's death, shows where Loki's confession fits and where it does not, and binds the return to Voluspo 62 rather than to a summary.",
  "confidence": 0.93,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "norse",
      "kind": "deity",
      "group": "aesir",
      "domains": [
        "light",
        "beauty",
        "innocence"
      ],
      "symbols": [
        "mistletoe"
      ],
      "wikidata": "Q131658"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/baldr",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/baldr.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Baldr",
    "description": "Son of Odin and Frigg, \"the bleeding god\", killed by his brother Hoth with a shaft of mistletoe; avenged by Vali, born for that purpose and one night old when he fought; mourned by Frigg in Fensalir; expected back after Ragnarok, when \"Baldr comes back\" to dwell with Hoth in the new world.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/baldr",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri",
        "url": "https://github.com/fjarri/poetic_edda/tree/master/chapters"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Baldr"
  }
}