Chapter 24:

In the spring Olaf took over the farm at Goddastadir ... Olaf soon had no lack of supporters and became an important chieftain. ...Olaf's farm was soon the most impressive in the Laxardal valley. ...The lands which Hrapp had owned were deserted, as was previously written. Olaf thought this a likely piece of land, as it bordered on his own, and suggested to his father that they pay a visit to Thorkel Scarf to purchase the land at Hrappsstadir and other property connected to it. Their offer was readily accepted and the purchase concluded. 

...The lands included large stretches of prime pasture and plenty of other benefits, including salmon fishing and seal hunting, and large forests as well.   A short distance upriver from Hoskuldsstadir, on the north side of the Laxa, a grove had been cleared in the forest. Olaf's sheep could, more often than not, be found grouped in this clearing in both fair weather and foul. One autumn Olaf had a house built in this same clearing, using wood from the forest as well as driftwood. The large and imposing house stood empty the first winter.

The following summer Olaf moved his household there, after having rounded up his stock beforehand. This was no small herd, as no one in the Breidafjord district owned more livestock. Olaf sent a request that his father stand outside where he could watch them go by on their way to the new farm and wish them good fortune, and Hoskuld agreed. Olaf then organised the procession: the men at the front drove the sheep who were most difficult to handle. Next came the milking ewes and cattle from the home pastures, followed by steers, calves and heifers, with the packhorses bringing up the rear.

...The farmhands had just finished taking the packs off the horses when Olaf rode into the yard. He addressed his household: "You must be curious to know what the farm is to be called, and I know there has been a lot of speculation about it all winter. It shall be called Hjardarholt (Herd Wood)." Everyone thought it a very good idea to take a name linked to the events which had occurred on the site. Olaf set about building up his farm at Hjardarholt, and the farm was soon an impressive one, lacking nothing. During the first winter in Hjardarholt Olaf had a large number of resident servants and other farmhands. The farm chores were divided among the servants: some looked after the non-milking stock, others the milking cows. The cowshed was located in the forest some distance away from the farmhouse.

That summer Olaf had a fire-hall (eld-hús) built at Hjardarholt which was larger and grander than men had ever seen before. On the wood of the gable, and the rafters, decorative tales were carved. It was so well crafted that it was thought more ornamental without the tapestries than with them.

 ...Geirmund was then engaged to (Olaf's daughter) Thurid and their wedding held later that winter at Hjardarholt. A great number of people attended the feast as the fire-hall was fully built by that time. Among the guests was a poet,  Ulfur Uggason, who had composed a poem about Olaf Hoskuldsson and the tales carved on the wood of the fire-hall which he recited at the feast. It is called "House Drapa" (Husdrápa) and is a fine piece of verse. Olaf rewarded him well for the poem, and gave all the important people who attended the feast fine gifts, gaining considerable respect as a result.

Translated by Keneva Kunz, Complete Sagas of the Icelanders, Vol. V (1997)

Of Baldur’s death and funeral pyre, Gylfaginning 49 relates the following story:

En er þetta var gert ok vitat, þá var þat skemtun Baldrs ok ásanna at hann skyldi standa upp á þingum, en allir aðrir skyldu sumir skjóta á hann, sumir höggva til, sumir berja grjóti. En hvat sem at var gert, sakaði hann ekki, ok þótti þetta öllum mikill frami. En er þetta sá Loki Laufeyjarson, þá líkaði honum illa er Baldr sakaði ekki. Hann gekk til Fensalar til Friggjar ok brá sér í konu líki. Þá spyrr Frigg ef sú kona vissi hvat æsir höfðusk at á þinginu. Hon sagði at allir skutu at Baldri, ok þat at hann sakaði ekki. Þá mælti Frigg: "Eigi munu vápn eða viðir granda Baldri. Eiða hefi ek þegit af öllum þeim."	“Once it became known to all that nothing could harm Baldur, it became a pastime for Baldur and the Aesir that he should stand up at the thingstead and all the others would either shoot at him, hew, or throw stones. But whatever one did to him, he remained unharmed, and they all thought that this was a great honor. When Loki, Laufey’s son saw this, it annoyed him that Baldur was not hurt. He went to Fensalir and Frigg and transformed himself into the guise of a woman, whom Frigg asked if she knew what the Aesir were doing at the Thing. She replied that they all shoot at Baldur without causing him injury. Frigg then said “Neither weapon nor wood harms Baldur, because I have taken oaths from them all.”
Þá spyrr konan: "Hafa allir hlutir eiða unnit at eira Baldri?" Þá svarar Frigg: "Vex viðarteinungr einn fyrir vestan Valhöll, sá er mistilteinn kallaðr. Sá þótti mér ungr at krefja eiðsins." Því næst hvarf konan á brut. En Loki tók mistiltein ok sleit upp ok gekk til þings. En Höðr stóð útarliga í mannhringinum, þvíat hann var blindr. Þá mælti Loki við hann: "Hví skýtr þú ekki at Baldri?" Hann svarar: "Þvíat ek sé eigi hvar Baldr er, ok þat annat at ek em vápnlauss." Þá mælti Loki: "Gerðu þó í líking annarra manna ok veit Baldri sœmð sem aðrir menn. Ek mun vísa þér til hvar hann stendr. Skjót at honum vendi þessum."	“Have all things sworn an oath to spare him?” asked the woman. Frigg replied: “There is a tender sapling growing east of Valhall whose name is Mistletoe; it seemed too young to me to make an oath.”  Thereafter the woman went on her way. But Loki took Mistletoe, plucked it, and brought it to the Thing. There stood Hödur at the edge of the circle of men, since he was blind. Loki said to him: “Why don’t you shoot at Baldur?” He replied: “because I cannot see where he stands, and moreover I am without a weapon.” Loki said: “Do as the others do, and like them, show Baldur honor. I will show you where he stands. Shoot at him with this sapling!”
Höðr tók mistiltein ok skaut at Baldri at tilvísun Loka. Flaug skotit í gögnum hann ok fell hann dauðr til jarðar...	He took Mistletoe and, under Loki’s guidance, shot it at Baldur. The missile went through Baldur and he fell dead to the ground....
En æsirnir tóku lík Baldrs ok fluttu til sævar. Hringhorni hét skip Baldrs. Hann var allra skipa mestr, hann vildu goðin fram setja ok gera þar á bálför Baldrs. En skipit gekk hvergi fram. Þá var sent í Jötunheima eptir gýgi þeiri er  Hyrrokkin hét, en er hon kom ok reið vargi ok hafði höggorm at taumum, þá hljóp hon af hestinum, en Óðinn kallaði til berserki fjóra at gæta hestsins, ok fengu þeir eigi haldit nema þeir feldi hann. Þá gekk Hyr<r>okkin á framstafn nökkvans ok hratt fram í fyrsta viðbragði, svá at eldr hraut ór hlunnunum ok lönd öll skulfu. Þá varð Þórr reiðr ok greip hamarinn ok myndi þá brjóta höfuð hennar, áðr en goðin öll báðu henni friðar.	…So the Aesir took Baldur’s body and bore it to the sea. Hringhorn was the name of Baldur’s ship, the biggest of all. The gods wanted to launch it into the sea in order to make Baldur’s pyre upon it; but they could not move the ship. They sent word to Jötunheim for a gyg (a giantess), named Hyrrokkin. She came, riding on a wolf with vipers for reins, and leapt off her steed. Odin ordered four beserkers to hold it, but they could not get power over the wolf, except to throw him down.  Hyrrokkin went to the ship’s prow and with her first shove set it in such a pace that fire shot out from the rollers and the whole land quaked. Then Thor grew angry and gripped his hammer and would have crushed her head, if all the gods had not begged him for peace.
Þá var borit út á skipit lík Baldrs, ok er þat sá kona hans, Nanna Nepsdóttir, þá sprakk hon a harmi ok dó. Var hon borin á bálit ok slegit í eldi. Þá stóð Þórr at ok vígði bálit með Mjölni, en fyrir fótum hans rann dvergr nökkurr, sá er Litr nefndr, en Þórr spyrndi fœtum á hann ok hratt honum í eldinn, ok brann hann.	Thereafter, Baldur’s body was brought out to the ship; but when his wife Nanna, Nep’s daughter, saw it, she collapsed from grief and died. She was carried out onto the bale, and it was ignited. As Thor stood there and hallowed the pyre with Mjöllnir, a dwarf, named Lit (Litr) leapt before his feet and Thor kicked him so that he flew into the fire and was burnt. To this funeral came many different kinds of folk. First to tell of is Odin, and with him were Frigg and the valkyries and Odin's ravens. Frey drove in a chariot pulled by the boar called Gullinbursti or Slidrugtanni. Heimdall rode on his horse Gulltop and Freyja fared with her cats. Many frost-giants were there and mountain giants too.”

Although this tale professes to recount  the most tragic event in all of Germanic mythology, the absurdity of some of the story's finer details gives it an almost comic character that contrasts sharply with all we know of the Old Norse narrative art. For example, the author allows Loki to ask Höður, a “blind” god, why he doesn't shoot or throw anything at Baldur, and allows this blind man to shoot at his brother under Loki's direction without any of the other gods noticing. As a weapon, he uses the flimsy herb, mistletoe, freshly "plucked from the ground" to inflict a mortal wound. Such an explanation might satisfy a mythologist who sincerely believes in Gylfaginning, but it would undoubtedly have produced peels of laughter, if it were presented to our forefathers, who were disposed toward realism and sensitive to comedy.

Nevertheless, Gylfaginning’s author had a heathen source for what he says. His mistake, however,  is that he misunderstood its nature. He imagined that the heathen song, which he faithfully followed, contained an accurate account of the events surrounding Baldur’s death and cremation, whereas its true purpose was to accurately describe a work of art whose creator depicted scenes from the Baldur myth and other stories of the gods in a series of allegorical images. Thus, the truer Snorri's source was to describing its subject's method of pictorially expressing the myth in visual symbols, the more it deviated from the actual myth it represented— in other words, the work of art which the poem described departed from the mythic narrative wherever the artist resorted to symbolic means to make his pictorial work intelligible and recognizable to its viewers. The poem in question is the Icelandic skald  Ulfur Uggason’s Húsdrápa, of which some fragments sufficient as evidence have been preserved into our time.

Gylfaginning’s account of Baldur’s death and funeral procession takes on a very different appearance, depending on the underlying assumptions with which one reads them. If one assumes it is a direct account of the Baldur myth itself, the contents seem somewhat incredulous and even amusing. If, on the other hand, one realizes that the author of Gylfaginning derived his account from Húsdrápa, and that it extolled— not the myth in question— but an artwork illustrating the myth in pictures, then the absurdities disappear, and one gets an intriguing insight into the means that the creator of the art at Hjardarholt employed to make his masterwork intelligible and meaningful.

Consider the account of Baldur’s pyre. Gylfaginning describes a strange funeral procession in Baldur’s honor, one in which ravens, cats, a boar, and a host of hostile frost giants and mountain giants take part. The strangeness disappears if instead we picture before us a series of visual works in which the artist endeavors to make clear which mythic person his figures represent by means of their associated symbols. When the artist wanted to indicate that one of the many figures that took part in Baldur's funeral procession was Odin, he could not depict him riding the eight-footed Sleipnir —an image immediately recognizable as Odin— because on that occasion Sleipnir carried another rider, Hermod, to Hel on Frigg's behalf. Therefore, the artist had ravens and valkyries accompany Odin, characteristic companions for the father of the gods. They distinguish Odin as he rides to his son’s pyre. That Gylfaginning’s author gathered these features from  Ulfur Uggason's poem is made clear above.

Húsdrápa’s task was to faithfully illustrate in words, what the artist had illustrated in pictures— not to provide a faithful account of the Baldur myth. In other words,  Ulfur Uggason’s task was to present a faithful copy of the particulars of the artwork he saw before him in words and to extol its allegoric elements for the entertainment of the gathered guests. What little is left of Húsdrápa confirms this opinion of the poem’s nature.
 
After Odin, Frigg, the ravens and valkyries, Frey appeared in the series of pictures. Since he is spoken of in the myth as a remarkable rider, one would expect him to be represented on horseback in Hjardarholt’s pictorial work. In Lokasenna 37, Týr calls him the “best of all bold riders.” In two skaldic verses preserved in Skáldskaparmál 58, Frey is said to ride the horse Bloodyhoof, an appropriate name for a war-horse.  He is a swordsman who famously gave away his sword to the giant Gymir in exchange for his daughter (Lokasenna 42).

But since Grímnismál 29, 30 states that all the gods —the Vanir and the Æsir with the exception of Thor— are riders, to place Frey on a horse would not distinguish him sufficiently from the other gods, of which at least two, Odin and Heimdall, were depicted as riders.  Probably for this reason, the artist let Frey be conveyed by his gold-glittering boar, which was his symbol and which clearly distinguished him as the beneficient Vana-god. When Gylfaginning says: En Freyr ók í kerru með gelti þeim er Gullinbursti heitir (“While Frey drove in a chariot pulled by a boar called Gullinbursti”), the source of this, as shown above, is Húsdrápa.

The surviving portion of Húsdrápa which speaks of the Baldur myth only concerns the funeral procession. Therefore, this is the only direct evidence we have for examination. Yet, where we see similar descriptions, we may suspect a similar origin.

In the remainder of Snorri's narrative, once Hyrrokkin succeeded in pushing the ship out to sea, Thor became angry and wanted to crush her head with his hammer. When he went to hallow the pile with his hammer, a dwarf named Litr leapt in front of him. Thor gave the dwarf a swift kick, causing him to fall into the fire. The whole episode forms a chain of absurdities if we take it at face value. That a single giantess was stronger than Thor and all the Æsir combined is something that a faithful heathen could never fall for. What the mythology relates about Thor most definitely contradicts this. It is absurd to think that the gods would humiliate themselves by sending a message to their enemies, the jötuns, in order to solicit such help and even more absurd that Thor would want to kill her once she had done what was asked of her. Why the generally good-natured Thor would kick a dwarf into the fire is hard to understand. This behavior is ill-suited for such a solemn occasion, during which it was supposed to have occurred. However, all this is satisfactorily explained  once we are convinced, by means of Húsdrápa. that it is based on the artwork at Hjardarholt, and not a traditional mythic poem.

Fullöflug lét fjalla fram haf-Sleipni þramma Hildr, en Hrofts of gildar hjalmelda mar felldu.

The most powerful mountain-Hild made the sea-Sleipnir lumber forward, while Hropt's helmet-fire-power-investors felled her steed.

The name  Hyrrokkin may tell us who this giantess is. The name, a compound of hyrr (fire) and rjúka (smoke), means the "fire-smoked" and may be an epithet of the thrice-burnt Gullveig-Heiðr, whom the Æsir burnt for spreading sorcery among mankind (Völuspá 21-27). When the artist has her push Baldur’s ship out to sea, he thereby would have given understandable symbolic expression to the mythic fact that, if  Hyrrokkin did not exist, Hringhorn would not have been put to sea with Baldur’s corpse, because Baldur would not have fallen victim to the giant world’s treachery. To find a role for Hyrrokinn in the Baldur myth, we need look no further than the mysterious giantess Thökk, who refuses to weep for Baldur's return.

What other role she may have played in Baldur's death, if any, is unknown, since no poetic source provides detailed information about the circumstances surrounding Baldur's death. Völuspá, Baldurs draumr, and Lokasenna are the only other poems which mentioned it, and they are short on details.  A suggestive passage in Book 3 of Saxo's History, has Hotherus (Hödur) meet three witches in the wood, before his battle with Balder over Nep's daughter, Nanna.

From the desciption of Hyrrokkin in Gylfaginning 49, one learns what means the artist at Hjardarholt identify the giantess. He allows her to come riding on a wolf, in order to point out that she is a giantess. But since wolves are also the steeds of other thurs-women, this was not enough. To distinquish her special status among giantesses, Hyrrokkin's wolf had to be the strongest and most dangerous of all. Therefore, it is depicted prone,  held by four of Odin’s “berserkers,” that is to say Einherjar. In addition, the artist drew flames beneath the ship, because Hyrrokkin was burnt by the gods and Baldur’s death was one way she extracted vengeance. Thus she is shown launching Hringhorn with Baldur’s pyre on board. As clarification, the artist had Thor raise his hammer toward the giantess, because, according to the mythology, Thor killed Hyrrokkin with his hammer. [Compare Völuspá 27, which speaks of Thor's reaction to Gullveig-Heid's burning with Thorbjörn Disarskald’s verse in Skáldskaparmál 4, which lists Hyrrokkin among the giantesses killed by Thor. Keep in mind that Snorri says that Thor did not kill Hyrrokinn on this occasion.]

By the ship’s stern the artist may have applied a figure that Húsdrápa called Litr, and which Snorri understood as a dwarf because of the dwarf-list in one of his primary sources, Völuspá. The name Litr is used as both a giant's name (Ragnarsdrápa) and the name of a dwarf  (Völuspá 12). As a giant-name Litr is used in a skaldic verse from Ragnarsdrápa ascribed to Bragi skald in Skáldskaparmál 42, which speaks of Thor fishing.
 

 Here, Litr might indicate Loki, the father of the serpent, who hid himself in salmon-guise, until the Æsir caught him and punished him for his role in Baldur's death. Thor caught Loki as he attempted to leap over a net drawn by the Æsir. In applying  Hyrrokkin by the funeral ship’s prow and Litr as a symbol of Loki down by its stern the artist may have intended to express that Hyrrokkin and Loki were the ones who actually caused Baldur’s death, and thereby brought about the launching of his funeral ship. That Thor is represented kicking the dwarf into the fire may be because Thor was the one who caught Loki in Franangr’s falls, and placed him in the cavern of subterranean fire (hveralund, thought to indicate the presence of geysers) where he lies bound until Ragnarök. Litr is also one of the gifts that Odin's brother, Lodur (Vili), gave to Ask and Embla, and refers to one's "looks, appearance, coloring", which in Baldr's case, would have gone up in flames on the pyre. In any case, the "dwarf" Litr is probably a symbolic representation.

The theory that Snorri used Húsdrápa as a source has broader implications for the Baldur myth as well. From Völuspá 32, we learn that Baldur was killed with an arrow shot by his brother Hödur (harmflaug hættlig Höðr nam skjóta). According to Gylfaginning, after Loki had ripped mistletoe from the ground, he stood beside Hödur and directed the shot because Hödur was blind —this while all the gods stood around Baldur in a ring (mannhringr). Yet, we are led to believe that Loki's evil act went unnoticed until he confessed his involvement in Baldur's death in Lokasenna 28, at a gathering of the gods at a feast held by the sea god Aegir. There Loki tells Frigg that he is the reason the Aesir "no longer see Baldr riding to their halls." Snorri, who extensively uses Lokasenna as a source, places this feast at the opening of Skáldskaparmál, does not recount the incident of Loki's flyting toward the gods told there, and instead attributes the gods' capture and punishment of Loki  to Loki "presumably" disguising himself as Thökk and refusing to weep for Baldur's return. Snorri himself seems uncertain of this. In the prose conclusion of Lokasenna, Loki's capture and binding follow on the events of the poem, and appear to be directly related to his confession that he caused Baldur's death.

The artist of this modern illustration  instinctively understood the problem of Loki standing beside Hödur in a crowd of other gods, and directing his hand without being noticed. He chose to represent Loki as invisible, something Gylfaginning does not do. (Gordon Browne, in Book of the Sagas, 1913)

That Hödur acted without evil intent and only as a blind tool of  Hyrrokkin and Loki, might have been expressed visually by the artist at Hjardarholt in this manner: he depicted Hödur shooting with his eyes closed, and placed Loki beside him directing his weapon. By this means, he symbolically illustrated the mythic circumstance that Hödur was Baldur’s handbani (actual murderer), but Loki his ráðbani (contriver of murder). From this, it is easy to see how the author of Gylfaginning came to the conclusion that Hödur was blind.

Almost universally, the word blind not only has its actual physical meaning, but also a derived intellectual meaning. When symbolic artists wish to refer to the latter, they commonly do so by resorting to the former. In other words, when an artist wants to show that a person is intellectually "blind" to something, he commonly depicts the figure as physically blind.   One faces danger blind, if he doesn't know or doesn't want to know of it. One rushes into battle "blind", when he does not weigh his strength against his opponent’s. One acts "blindly" when, as the tool of another, he unintentionally injures someone he loves. In this sense, Hödur was blind when he shot Baldur, and it may have been this that the creator of the Hjardarholt-artwork wanted to express, when he had Hödur fire the deadly shot with his eyes closed and placed the actual murderer by his side. Otherwise, from Gylfaginning's account, we gather that Loki was imprisoned and tortured merely for refusing to weep for Baldur.

That Loki would actually stand beside Hödur and direct his weapon is laughable. The Aesir, standing around Baldur in a mannhringr (circle of people), would of course immediately have seen who the actual murder was. Logic requires that Loki act as cunningly as possible, thereby hiding his involvement in Baldur's death and chosing someone close to him to carry it out, who could be mistaken to entertain plans of revenge against his brother. Saxo's account of the Baldur myth, retold as Danish history in a distorted form, suggests that there may have been a rivalry between the two brothers for the hand of Nanna. For this to be plausible, the mistletoe would only have had to have been crafted into an arrow or dart (harmflaug), capable of penetrating Baldur's skin and delivering a deadly wound, not simply plucked from the ground as Snorri states.

That hosts of rime-thurses and mountain-giants, enemies of the gods and the world according to the myth, would have been present in Asgard when Baldur was cremated is improbable. But it is nevertheless understandable that the artwork at Hjardarholt allowed them to be, because the artist could not express in a better way that Baldur’s death plunged the world, including some of Jötunheim’s inhabitants, into despair.