Chapter 22

Then Gangleri said, ‘I would like to hear about the other Æsir.’

High said, ‘Odin’s second son is Baldr, and there is much good to tell about him. He is the best, and all praise him. He is so beautiful and so bright that light shines from him. One plant is so white that it is likened to Baldr’s brow.¹ It is the whitest of all plants, and from this you can judge the beauty of both his hair and his body. He is the wisest of the gods. He is also the most beautifully spoken and the most merciful, but one of his characteristics is that none of his decisions is effective. He lives at the place called Breidablik. It is in heaven, and no impurity may be there. As is said:

Breidablik it is called where Baldr has made for himself a hall, in that land where I know there are the fewest perils. (*The Lay of Grimnir. 12*)