The gods upon this dispatched messengers throughout all the world to beseech everything to weep, in order that Balder might be delivered from the power of Hel. All things very willingly complied with the request,—men, animals, the earth, stones, trees, and all metals, just as we see things weep when they come out of the frost into the warm air. When the messengers were returning, with the conviction that their mission had been quite successful, they found on their way home a giantess (ogress, Icel. _gýgr_), who called herself Thok. They bade her also weep Balder out of the dominion of Hel. But she answered: Thok will weep With dry tears[58] For Balder’s death; Neither in life nor in death Gave he me gladness. Let Hel keep what she has. It is supposed that this giantess (_gýgr_) was no other than Loke Laufeyarson himself, who had caused the gods so many other troubles. Thus the Elder Edda refers to the death of Balder in Völuspá: I saw the concealed Fate of Balder, The blood-stained god, The son of Odin. In the fields There stood grown up, Slender and passing fair, The mistletoe. From that shrub was made, As to me it seemed, A deadly noxious dart; Hoder shot it forth; But Frigg bewailed In Fensal Valhal’s calamity. Understand ye yet, or what? To conquer Vafthrudner, and to reveal himself, Odin asks him to solve this last problem: What said Odin In his son’s ear, Ere he on the pile was laid? This is the question that Vafthrudner was unable to answer, and hence he had to forfeit his head. N. M. Petersen thinks that Odin whispered into Balder’s ear the name of the supreme god. This myth about the death of Balder finds an apt explanation in the seasons of the year, in the change from light to darkness, in Norseland. Balder represents the bright and clear summer, when twilight and daybreak kiss each other and go hand in hand in these northern latitudes. His death by Hoder is the victory of darkness over light, the darkness of winter over the light of summer, and the revenge by Vale is the breaking forth of new light after the wintry darkness.