who is "the god of lamentations"?

In Skáldskaparmál §5 Snorri Sturluson quotes the example of poet Ulf Uggason using "the god of lamentations" kenning for Baldr. While we have the universe-stabilizing presence of Baldr's handsome light while he's alive, Hel's request that all things weep for his return explains this characterization shrouded in the sadness of loss.

[the stones, grasses, and flowers weep tears of dew and condensation for Baldr. (prompts by me, produced by Gemini.)]

Yet, what if there's more to this? Could this kenning potentially refer to a ritual to Baldr where worshippers must lament to recreate the mythic event in the Baldrs draumar narrative?

And would it be too much to say that such a ritual would grant the space and grace of participants to mourn the loss of their own sons, daughters, kin, and pets as a purposeful function? The loss of the brightness Baldr grants clearly mirrors all loss of love and companionship taken by death, tilting one's personal world toward more doomed feelings of sadness, as though the end of the world were the consequence. In Baldr's case it actually is as there's now an irreparable cosmic imbalance left in the wake of his absence, and the parallel experience to all closely felt death is within that.

While there is a round of honoring of the ancestors in Sumbel or Faining, something more inclusive of the resultant overwhelming feelings generated by death might have served dedicants in a needed way that those do not.

Even if there isn't a ritual to be perceived within this kenning (and hey, why couldn't we NorsePlay one for ourselves as a purposeful expansion of modern Heathen praxis?), there's definitely the above spectrum of emotional truth to be found within Baldr's story that applies to everyone's vulnerabilities to the condition of mortality.

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.

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