95 



"I foresaw for Baldur, for that bloody victim, 

 For that son of Odin, the destiny reserved for him : 

 He was raising in a charming valley, 

 A tender and beautiful Mistletoe. 

 From that stalk, which appeared so tender, grew 

 The fatal arrow of bitterness, that Hoder took upon 

 himself to dart." 



(Madame Ida Pfeiffer's "Visit to Iceland," p. 329.) 



But the idea is so much more fully and beautifully expressed 

 in the legend on the death of Baldur, given in the tale of " The 

 Toung Norseman," by Mr. "W. B. Rands, which appeared in the 

 "Boys' Own Volume " that I attach it entire, as an appendix to 

 this paper, f 



"More than one sword of a Northern Champion was named 

 'MistUteinn,' after the weapon which had slain the white god. 

 The story affords one of many points of resemblance between 

 the mythology of Northern Europe, and those of Persia and the 

 far East. In the Shah Nameh, the hero Asfendiar is represented 

 as invulnerable, except by a branch from a tree growing on the 

 remotest shore of the ocean. Desthan his enemy found it, hard- 

 ened it with fire, and killed the hero. Both legends possibly 

 refer to the 'death' of the Sun; perishing in his youthful vigour, 

 either at the end of a day struck by the powers of darkness, 

 or at the end of the sunny season stung by the thorns of winter." 

 (Max Muller's "Comparative Mj'thology" in Oxford Essays for 

 1856.) "The 'Marentakken,' or 'branch of spectres' which stUl 

 in Holstein is believed to confer the power of ghost-seeing on 

 its possessor, is unquestionably the true Viscum Album." — 

 (Quarterly Review, Vol. 114, p. 220.) 



It is very difficult to trace down in history, the customs 

 relative to the Mistletoe after the overthrow of the Druidical 



f The Mistletoe, Trefoil, Oak, and Wheat, form the Bardic emblems of 

 the four seasons, and, as such, the Mistletoe was figured on the jewelled 

 National Token, given by the Ladies of South Wales, to the Princess of 

 Wales. (Illustrated London News, March 5th, 1863.) 



