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Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is the god of love, peace and forgiveness, of justice, light and purity in Norse mythology. He is the second son of Odin and the goddess Frigg and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. His twin brother is the blind god of darkness, Höðr. According to ''Gylfaginning'', a book of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Baldr's wife is Nanna and their son is Forseti. In ''Gylfaginning'', Snorri relates that Baldr had the greatest ship ever built, named Hringhorni, and that there is no place more beautiful than his hall, Breidablik. In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. Compiled in Iceland in the 13th century, but based on much older Old Norse poetry, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda contain numerous references to the death of Baldr as both a great tragedy to the Æsir and a harbinger of Ragnarök. ==Name== Jacob Grimm in his ''Teutonic Mythology'' (ch. 11) identifies Old Norse ''Baldr'' with the Old High German ''Baldere'' (2nd Merseburg Charm, Thuringia), ''Palter'' (theonym, Bavaria), ''Paltar'' (personal name) and with Old English ''bealdor, baldor'' "lord, prince, king" (used always with a genitive plural, as in ''gumena baldor'' "lord of men", ''wigena baldor'' "lord of warriors", et cetera). Old Norse shows this usage of the word as an honorific in a few cases, as in ''baldur î brynju'' (Sæm. 272b) and ''herbaldr'' (Sæm. 218b), both epithets of heroes in general. Grimm traces the etymology of the name to *''balþaz'', whence Gothic ''balþs'', Old English ''bald'', Old High German ''pald'', all meaning "white, good".〔"''Baldrs'' would in strictness appear to have no connexion with the Goth. ''balþs'' (bold, audax), nor ''Paltar'' with the OHG. ''pald'', nor ''Baldr'' with the ON. ''ballr'' 'dangerous, dire'. As a rule, the Gothic ''ld'' is represented by ON. ''ld'' and OHG. ''lt'': the Gothic ''lþ'' by ON. ''ll'' and OHG. ''ld''. But the OS. and AS. have ''ld'' in both cases, and even in Gothic, ON. and OHG. a root will sometimes appear in both forms in the same language; so that a close connexion between ''balþs'' and ''Baldrs'', ''pald'' and Paltar, is possible after all."〕 But the interpretation of Baldr as "the brave god" may be secondary. Baltic (cf. Lithuanian ''baltas'', Latvian ''balts'') has a word meaning "the white, the good", and Grimm speculates that the name may originate as a Baltic loan into Proto-Germanic. In continental Saxon and Anglo-Saxon tradition, the son of Odin is called not ''Bealdor'' but ''Baldag'' (Sax.) and ''Bældæg, Beldeg'' (AS.), which shows association with "day", possibly with Day personified as a deity which, Grimm points out, would agree with the meaning "shining one, white one, a god" derived from the meaning of Baltic ''baltas'', further adducing Slavic ''Belobog'' and German ''Berhta''.〔"''Bæl-dæg'' itself is white-god, light-god, he that shines as sky and light and day, the kindly ''Bièlbôgh, Bèlbôgh'' of the Slav system. It is in perfect accord with this explanation of ''Bæl-dæg'', that the AS. tale of ancestry assigns to him a son Brond, of whom the Edda is silent, ''brond, brand'', ON. ''brandr'' (fire brand or blade of a sword), signifying ''jubar, fax, titio''. Bældæg therefore, as regards his name, would agree with ''Berhta'', the bright goddess.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baldr」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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