And thrice in arms around the dead they rode, Weeping; the sands were wetted, and their arms, With their thick-falling tears--so good a friend They mourn'd that day, so bright, so loved a God. And Odin came, and laid his kingly hands On Balder's breast, and thus began the wail:-- "Farewell, O Balder, bright and loved, my son! In that great day, the twilight of the Gods, When Muspel's children shall beleaguer Heaven, Then we shall miss thy counsel and thy arm." Thou camest near the next, O warrior Thor! Shouldering thy hammer, in thy chariot drawn, Swaying the long-hair'd goats with silver'd rein; And over Balder's corpse these words didst say:-- "Brother, thou dwellest in the darksome land, And talkest with the feeble tribes of ghosts, Now, and I know not how they prize thee there-- But here, I know, thou wilt be miss'd and mourn'd. For haughty spirits and high wraths are rife Among the Gods and Heroes here in Heaven, As among those whose joy and work is war; And daily strifes arise, and angry words. But from thy lips, O Balder, night or day, Heard no one ever an injurious word To God or Hero, but thou keptest back The others, labouring to compose their brawls. Be ye then kind, as Balder too was kind! For we lose him, who smoothed all strife in Heaven." He spake, and all the Gods assenting wail'd. And Freya next came nigh, with golden tears; The loveliest Goddess she in Heaven, by all Most honour'd after Frea, Odin's wife. Her long ago the wandering Oder took To mate, but left her to roam distant lands; Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold. Names hath she many; Vanadis on earth They call her, Freya is her name in Heaven; She in her hands took Balder's head, and spake:-- "Balder, my brother, thou art gone a road Unknown and long, and haply on that way My long-lost wandering Oder thou hast met, For in the paths of Heaven he is not found. Oh, if it be so, tell him what thou wast To his neglected wife, and what he is, And wring his heart with shame, to hear thy word! For he, my husband, left me here to pine, Not long a wife, when his unquiet heart First drove him from me into distant lands; Since then I vainly seek him through the world, And weep from shore to shore my golden tears, But neither god nor mortal heeds my pain. Thou only, Balder, wast for ever kind, To take my hand, and wipe my tears, and say: _Weep not, O Freya, weep no golden tears!_ _One day the wandering Oder will return,_ _Or thou wilt find him in thy faithful search_ _On some great road, or resting in an inn,_ _Or at a ford, or sleeping by a tree._ So Balder said;--but Oder, well I know, My truant Oder I shall see no more To the world's end; and Balder now is gone, And I am left uncomforted in Heaven." She spake; and all the Goddesses bewail'd.