Death of Balder

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

If you read Norse Mythology you know about the death of Balder where Loki plots the death of Balder and tricks Hoder the blind god to throw a spear or shoot an arrow made out of a mistletoe branch since it was the only thing that could harm Balder. But did you know that there were two other versions of the death of Balder? One that doesn't even mention Loki at all, in it Balder is killed in battle fighting to get the girl he lusted after from her boyfriend, but that never caught on because no body really liked the idea of Balder being portrayed in such a negative light. The other one was Loki still ploted the death of Balder, but he was only following Odin's orders because he wanted Balder safe in Hel until Ragnarok. To reward Loki's loyalty at following Odin's orders, Odin had Loki chained to a rock while a snake dripped venom onto his face. Loki accepted his punishment for his part in the death of an innocent god. I guess this never caught on because the people wanted to make Loki the bad guy.

[lovehiddles]

loki seems to get the short end of the stick for everything doesn't he, really makes you feel sorry for him even in the mythology

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

I know, it is really screwed up how everyone treats Loki the way they do in both the mythology and Marvel series. But the funny thing is that without Loki the other gods wouldn't have Sleipnir, Mjolnir, or Odin's spear. I think that is one of the reasons why I like Loki, without him, the other gods would be screwed. In one version of the story where Loki gets chained to the rock and have the snake drip the venom on his face had nothing to do with the death of Balder, it was because Loki went to a feast and called out the other gods on their sins and the other gods got offended, but they had no problem with doing the same thing to Loki before that. So to punish Loki they turned one of his sons into a wolf and had him rip apart Loki's other son. Then they took the guts of the son that was ripped apart and chained Loki to that rock. Isn't that screwed up?

[lovehiddles]

yeah that's definitely screwed up, Loki may be the god of mischief but i think he's the only one who tried to do the right thing and gets punished for it. he follows Odin's orders gets punished for it and if he calls people out on their crap he gets punished for it he just can't win.

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

I know and usually when he does something bad tries to fix it like when he cut off Sif's hair, when he saw how upset it was making her, he went to the dwarves and got a new wig for her. Plus without Loki, Asgard would be so borring.

[lovehiddles]

exactly if it wasn't for him causing a bit of mischief now and then everyone would get really bored

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

I know, all of the best stories in Norse mythology have to do with Loki.

[lovehiddles]

exactly if you think about it he's really the only god all the others talk about no matter what he does they always talk about him

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

If you have read my Thor fanfic about the events after the movie, I put my own spin on the events of the death of Balder. In my version I had it to where Loki has nothing to do with the death of Balder, but the Asgardians were willing to believe that Loki was the one that was responsible for Balder's death just because Loki is Loki. To me I think that the death of Balder was just a horrible accident and they needed someone to blame and Loki was an easy person to blame because he is the god of mischief.

[lovehiddles]

exactly i mean you do have to take into account the the archer was blind, so how could he have known what he has picked up to fire

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

That is what I thought, plus I thought that it was really stupid that the other gods were going around throwing weapons at Balder, even though Frigga put all those spells on those items so they wouldn't harm Balder, it doesn't mean that the other gods should have gone and tempeted fate like they did just because they thought it was fun to see all of those weapons bounce off of Balder like they did.

[lovehiddles]

exactly, eventually one of those things were going to kill him it just happened to be the mistletoe the archer picked up

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

Exactly, one thing I have thought is that I have never really seen a clear motive as to why Loki was the one that plotted the death of Balder in the first place. Did Loki hate Balder and wanted him to die, was he out for revenge for some reason against Odin and Frigga, or did he really want to bring about Ragnarok even though it would mean his certian death? Also compared to his other forms of mischief this seems way to malicious for even Loki, I mean he goes from doing things like cutting off Sif's hair while she sleeps and forcing Thor to dress as a woman to being the master mind of the death of Balder.

[lovehiddles]

exactly, its like he's gone from small pranks, to full blown mayhem i mean i know he is the god if mischief and that but you are right it seems way to malicious even for loki i mean you would think he would wants to stay alive for as long as possible

[lokixjanefanmorgan]

I know, one thing that really struck me was the fact that when Loki get chained to that rock with that snake dripping poison on his face, Sigyn is there holding a bowl to catch the poison so it won't his face. Maybe Sigyn knows Loki better than the other gods and knows that he doesn't deserve the scorn that they give him. I mean if Loki was really as dark as we think he was, I think that Sigyn would have abandoned him when she had the chance to or Sigyn was a really pathetic woman that seems to find an excuse to stay with a man like that, but I would like to think that Loki wouldn't pick a woman like that and he would want a strong and smart woman for his wife.