Three Asa-gods are mentioned in our mythological records as peacemakers--Balder, Hoder, and Balder's son, Forsete. Balder is mentioned as judge in the Younger Edda (90). As such he is _liksamastr_--that is, "the most influential peacemaker." Of Forsete, who inherits his father's qualities as judge, it is said in Grimnersmal (15) that he _svefer allar sacir_, "settles all disputes." Hoder, who both in name and character appears to be a most violent and thoughtless person, seems to be the one least qualified for this calling. Nevertheless he performed the duties of an arbitrator by the side of Balder and probably under his influence. Saxo (_Hist._, 122) speaks of him as a judge to whom men referred their disputes--_consueverat consulenti populo plebiscita depromere_--and describes him as gifted with great talents of persuasion. He had _eloquentiæ suavitatem_, and was able to subdue stubborn minds with _benignissimo sermone_ (_Hist._, 116, 117). In Völuspa (60) the human race which peoples the renewed earth is called _burir brodra tvegia_, "the sons of the two brothers," and the two brothers mentioned in the preceding strophe are Balder and Hoder. Herewith is to be compared _ljóna kindir_ in Völuspa (14). In Harbardsljod (42) the insolent mocker of the gods, Harbard, refers to the miserable issue of an effort made by _jafnendr_, "the arbitrator," to reconcile gods with certain ones of their foes. I think it both possible and probable that the passage refers to the mythic event above described, and that it contains an allusion to the fact that the effort to make peace concerned the recovery of Frey and Freyja, who were delivered as "brides" to naughty giants, and for which "brides" the peacemakers received arrows and blows as compensation. Compare the expression _bæta mundi baugi_ and Thor's astonishment, expressed in the next strophe, at the insulting words, the worst of the kind he ever heard. Saxo describes the giant in whose power Frey is, when he is rescued by his father, as a cowardly and enervated monster whose enormous body is a _moles destituta rubore_ (_Hist._, 268). In this manner ended the effort of the gods to make peace. The three sons of Ivalde continue their journey to the Wolfdales, inaccessible to the gods, in order that they thence might send ruin upon the world.