Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

The misfortune which happened first to Baldur and then to Baldur's horse must be
counted among the warnings which foreboded the death of the son of Odin. 11 There are
also other passages which indicate that Baldur's horse must have had a conspicuous
signification in the mythology, and the tradition concerning Baldur as rider is preserved
not only in northern sources (Lokasenna 28, Gylfaginning), and in the Second Merseburg
Charm, but also in the German poetry of the Middle Ages. That there was some
witchcraft connected with this misfortune which happened to Baldur's horse is evident
from the fact that the galdur songs sung by the goddesses accompanying him availed
nothing. According to the Norse ancient records, the women particularly exercize the
healing art of galdur (compare Gróa and Sigurdrífa), but still Odin has the profoundest
knowledge of the secrets of this art; he is galdurs faðir (Vegtamskviða 3). And so Odin
comes in this instance, and is successful after the goddesses have tried in vain. We must
fancy that the goddesses make haste to render assistance in the order in which they ride in
relation to Baldur, for the event would lose its seriousness if we should conceive Odin as
being very near to Baldur from the beginning, but postponing his activity in order to
shine afterwards with all the greater magic power, which nobody disputed.
The goddesses constitute two pairs of sisters: Sinhtgunt and her sister Sunna, and
Frigg and her sister Fulla. According to the Norse sources, Frigg is Baldur's mother.
According to the same records, Fulla is always near Frigg, enjoys her whole confidence,
and wears a diadem as a token of her high rank among the goddesses. 12 An explanation
of this is furnished by the Second Merseburg Charm, which informs us that Fulla is
Frigg's sister, and so a sister of Baldur's mother. And as Odin is Baldur's father, we find
in the Second Merseburg Charm the Baldur of the Norse records, surrounded by the
kindred assigned to him in these records.
Under such circumstances it would be strange, indeed, if Sinhtgunt and the sundis,
Sunna, did not also belong to the kin of the sun-god, Baldur, as they not only take
part in this excursion of the Baldur family, but are also described as those nearest to him,
and as the first who give him assistance.
The Norse records have given to Baldur as wife Nanna, daughter of that divinity
which under Odin's supremacy is the ward of the atmosphere and the owner of the moonship.
If the continental Teutons in their mythological conceptions also gave Baldur a wife
devoted and faithful as Nanna, then it would be in the highest degree improbable that the
Second Merseburg Charm should not let her be one of those who, as a body-guard, attend
Baldur on his expedition to the forest. Besides Frigg and Fulla, there are two goddesses
who accompany Baldur. One of them is a sun-dis, as is evident from the name Sunna; the
other, Sinhtgunt, is, according to Bugge's discriminating interpretation of this epithet, the
dis "who night after night has to battle her way." 13 A goddess who is the sister of the sun-
11 Jakob Grimm notes: "The horse of Baldur lamed and checked on his journey, acquires a full meaning the
moment we think of him as the god of light or day, whose stoppage and detention must give rise to serious
mischief on the earth." (Stallybrass tr.)
12 Gylfaginning 35: "The fifth is Fulla, she, too, is a virgin and wears her hair loose and a golden band
round her head. She carries Frigg's little box and looks after her shoes, and knows secrets." Jean Young tr.
13 In his Dictionary Simek states that the name has remained unexplained to this day. He notes the
possibilities "the night walking one" (Brate, Ström) following the manuscript reading, and "the one moving
into battle" (Hugo Gering, reading Sinthgunt), and Grimm's interpretation of "heavenly body, star." The
interpretation of Sinhtgunt as a moon-dis is considered unlikely because the Moon is represented as
masculine. However, as seen Sinhtgunt-Nanna is likely the daughter of Máni.