Baldr’s death is one of the central disasters in Old Norse myth. Snorri’s Edda gives the fullest familiar account: Frigg secures promises from almost everything not to harm her son, but overlooks mistletoe. Loki turns that exception into a fatal weapon.
A game among the gods
Because weapons and objects will not hurt Baldr, the gods amuse themselves by throwing things at him. Loki learns from Frigg that a young mistletoe shoot was not asked to swear. He fashions or supplies a projectile from it.
Höðr and Loki
Snorri says Baldr’s blind brother Höðr stands apart from the game. Loki guides his hand, and the mistletoe kills Baldr. The Eddic poem Völuspá also names Höðr and mistletoe but gives fewer details. Calling the event a duel adds a fair fight that these sources do not describe.
The failed return
Hermóðr rides to Hel and asks for Baldr’s release. Hel agrees if every being weeps for him, but the giantess Þökk refuses, commonly understood as Loki in disguise. Baldr remains among the dead until after Ragnarök. Saxo Grammaticus preserves a different, more humanized conflict involving Balderus and Høtherus.