She came riding on a wolf and gave the
ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the
earth shook. Then Balder's body was taken and placed on the funeral
pile upon his ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst
for sorrow and she died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with
her husband, and fire was put to it. Balder's horse, too, with all
its trappings, was burned on the pile.
Whether he was a real or merely a mythical personage, Balder was
worshipped in Norway. On one of the bays of the beautiful Sogne
Fiord, which penetrates far into the depths of the solemn Norwegian
mountains, with their sombre pine-forests and their lofty cascades
dissolving into spray before they reach the dark water of the fiord
far below, Balder had a great sanctuary. It was called Balder's
Grove. A palisade enclosed the hallowed ground, and within it stood
a spacious temple with the images of many gods, but none of them was
worshipped with such devotion as Balder. So great was the awe with
which the heathen regarded the place that no man might harm another
there, nor steal his cattle, nor defile himself with women.
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