NorsePlay.

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...

In  Neil Gaiman 's retelling Norse Mythology , he poetically NorsePlay'd that mistletoe's consent to not harm Baldr couldn't be obtained because it was too young to cognitively agree to Frigg's compact. [book art illustration by Charles E. Brock (1930 CE).] I myself have speculated that perhaps mistletoe was a very latecomer in the spectrum of mythic time, a parasitical growth that appeared only after Frigg had locked down everything else's oath, which would make the most sense. As I read Marvel Universe 's entry on Baldr this week, the comic adaptation alternatively plays it this way: "Because of prophecies that Balder's death would help trigger the coming of Ragnarok , the destruction of Asgard and its inhabitants, Odin, ruler of Asgard , commanded his wife Frigga to make Balder invulnerable to harm. Frigga cast spells that would protect Balder from harm by any living or inanimate thing while he was in the Asgardian dimension. (The legends describ...