Golden Bough. Part VII. Balder The Beautiful. Volume I - Free Audiobook

The tenth volume in The Golden Bough series. Frazer discusses the problem which gives its title to the whole work. If right, the Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana’s priest at Aricia, kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on an oak within the sacred grove and as the plucking of the bough was a necessary prelude to the slaughter of the priest, leads to a parallel between the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound him. This volume also provides a dissertation into sacred rituals of fire and seclusion of girls in primitive societies. - Summary by leon harvey