Baldr

Frigg had traveled the world extracting oaths from all things not to harm Baldr, but she overlooked the mistletoe plant, considering it too young and insignificant. Loki discovered this loophole, fashioned a dart from mistletoe, and tricked the blind god Höðr into throwing it at Baldr during a game where the gods were testing Baldr's invulnerability.

According to the Völuspá in the Poetic Edda, Baldr returns from the realm of the dead after Ragnarök to inhabit the renewed world alongside his brother Höðr and other surviving gods. They are said to dwell together in a hall, and the reconciled brothers are described as ruling in the new and purified cosmos.

The goddess Hel agreed to release Baldr only if every being in existence wept for him, and Loki—disguised as the giantess Thökk—refused to shed a single tear, ensuring Baldr remained in the underworld. This refusal sealed Baldr's fate and was one of the key provocations that led the gods to eventually bind Loki as punishment.

The most detailed narrative of Baldr's death comes from Snorri Sturluson's 13th-century Prose Edda, written after Iceland's Christianization, but earlier references to Baldr's death and significance appear in the Poetic Edda poems. Scholars debate how much Christian influence, particularly the parallels to Christ's death and resurrection, may have shaped the surviving versions of the story.