Hod, also called Hoder, is a male deity in the Norse pantheon. He has a seat among the twelve of the council at Asgard, and is one of the few gods who will survive Ragnarok.[1] He is the blind twin brother of Balder.
Despite his senior rank among the Aesir, relatively little is known of Hod.
Description[]
Appearance and personality[]
Hod is the brother of Balder, though he lacks that deity's reputation of incredible beauty. Although he has a seat upon the council of twelve in Asgard, he talks very little.[2] Little is known about him.
Worship[]
The people of Midgard typically worship the Norse pantheon as a collective group. Little is known about Hod's cult.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Hod is the son of Odin and Frigga, and twin brother to Balder.
History[]
Death of Balder[]
Balder was so beloved by the gods that they sent his mother Frigga to visit every thing in creation and ask it to swear an oath not to harm him. She did this, but ignored mistletoe, thinking it too weak to harm anyone. Thereafter the gods entertained themselves by throwing weapons at Balder.
Loki, the trickster god, discovered Balder's weakness and sharpened a piece of mistletoe into a dart, giving it to Hod and guiding his hand so that it hit Balder's heart. Balder was slain.
Thereafter, Frigga sent Hermod to Hel to offer a ransom in exchange for her son. Hel agreed to return him to life, but only if all of Asgard shed a tear. Loki refused. The Aesir burned Balder's body on a funeral pyre, and his wife Nanna joined him on the pyre.[3]
Publication history[]
Original D&D[]
Hod, under the name Hoder, first appears in Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976), p.28.
AD&D 1st edition[]
Hod is not mentioned in the AD&D 1st edition Deities & Demigods (1e) (1980) or Legends & Lore (1e) (1984).
AD&D 2nd edition[]
Hod is not mentioned in Legends & Lore (2e) (1990) or the Planescape sourcebook On Hallowed Ground (1996), as according to those sourcebooks, Baldur has yet to be slain.
D&D 3rd edition[]
Hod is briefly mentioned in Deities and Demigods (3e) (2002), p.165,171.
D&D 4th edition[]
The Norse pantheon does not appear in D&D 4th edition.
D&D 5th edition[]
Hod is one of twenty Norse gods listed in the Player's Handbook (5e) (2014).
Creative origins[]
Hod (also written Hoder, Hoth or Höðr) appears in Norse myth. He is primarily mentioned in the context of the death of Balder, an event described in Deities and Demigods (3e) (2002), p.171.
In the poem Baldrs draumur, "Balder's Dreams", the god Balder suffers ominous nightmares. Odin raises a dead witch or seeress, who tells that Hod will be the one to kill Balder, and that Odin shall have a son, Vali, who will kill Hod to avenge the death of Balder. The death of Balder is also mentioned in Voluspa.
Balder and Hod are not mentioned in Vafthruthnismal, which predicts that Vithar, Vali, Modi and Magni will be the ones who survive Ragnarok. However, Voluspa ends with a prophecy that Balder and Hod will return after Ragnarok and join those who inhabit Odin's hall.
A much more detailed version of the death of Balder is told in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. After Balder's ominous dreams, his mother Frigga made all things swear an oath not to harm him, such that he was invulnerable to fire, water, iron, metal, stone, earth, trees, diseases, animals, birds, poison, and snakes. However, she secretly omitted a single shoot of mistletoe which grew west of Valhalla, considering it too young to swear an oath.
At a gathering where the Aesir threw weapons at Balder for sport, Loki became angry at his invulnerability, and disguised as a woman to learn the secret of Balder's weakness from Frigg. He picked the mistletoe shoot and handed to the blind Hod, directing him to shoot, which killed Balder. However, none could enact vengeance against Hod's killer as they were in a place of sanctuary.
Snorri's retelling is followed by the funeral pyre of Balder in elaborate detail, during which Nanna dies of grief and is placed upon the fire too. This is followed by a quest in which Hermod travels to Hel and attempts to offer to pay a ransom for Balder's return. Hel agrees, on the condition that all things in creation weep for Balder; to this day, the condensation which forms on cold objects brought into heat is their weeping. However, a giantess named Thanks refused to weep; she is suspected to be Loki in disguise.
References[]
- ↑ Deities and Demigods (3e) (2002), p.165.
- ↑ Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976).
- ↑ Deities and Demigods (3e) (2002), p.171.