Wept Out of Hel

‘Then Hermod rode on until he came to Hel’s gates. Then he
dismounted from the horse and tightened its girth, mounted and
spurred it on. The horse jumped so hard and over the gate that it
came nowhere near. Then Hermod rode up to the hall and
dismounted from his horse, went into the hall, saw sitting there in
the seat of honour his brother Baldr; and Hermod stayed there the
night. In the morning Hermod begged from Hel that Baldr might
ride home with him and said what great weeping there was among
the Æsir. But Hel said that it must be tested whether Baldr was as
beloved as people said in the following way,

‘“And if all things in the world, alive and dead, weep for him,
then he shall go back to the Æsir, but be kept with Hel if any
objects or refuses to weep.”

‘Then Hermod got up and Baldr went with him out of the hall
and took the ring Draupnir and sent it to Odin as a keepsake, and
Nanna sent Frigg a linen robe and other gifts too; to Fulla a
finger-ring. Then Hermod rode back on his way and came to
Asgard and told all the tidings he had seen and heard.

‘After this the Æsir sent over all the world messengers to
request that Baldr be wept out of Hel. And all did this, the people
and animals and the earth and the stones and trees and every
metal, just as you will have seen that these things weep when they
come out of frost and into heat. When the envoys were travelling
back having well fulfilled their errand, they found in a certain cave
a giantess sitting. She said her name was Thanks. They bade her
weep Baldr out of Hel. She said:

“Thanks will weep dry tears for Baldr’s burial. No good got
I from the old one’s son either dead or alive. Let Hel hold
what she has.”

‘It is presumed that this was Loki Laufeyiarson, who has done
most evil among the Æsir.’

Then spoke Gangleri: ‘It was quite an achievement of Loki’s
when he brought it about first of all that Baldr was killed, and also
that he was not redeemed from Hel. But was he punished at all for
this?’

High said: ‘He was requited for this in such a way that he will
not soon forget it. The gods having become as angry with him as
one might expect, he ran away and hid in a certain mountain, built
a house there with four doors so that he could see out of the house
in all directions.


- Prose Edda, Gylfaginning