Introduction
Nanna is the wife of Baldr, remembered for the intensity of her grief at his death: when his body was placed on the funeral ship for burning, her heart is said to have broken from sorrow, and she died and was burned on the pyre together with him.
Family
Death and the funeral
Baldr's funeral is one of the most elaborate described in Norse mythology: his body was placed on his great ship Hringhorni, which the gods struggled even to launch until a giantess, Hyrrokkin, was summoned to push it into the sea with a single shove. As the ship burned, Nanna, overcome with grief, died and was placed on the pyre beside her husband, so that the two were burned and, in most readings, sent to the underworld together.
Journey to Hel
In the Poetic Edda, when Hermod rides to the underworld to plead for Baldr's release, Nanna is present in Hel's hall alongside her husband, and sends gifts back with Hermod for the living, including a linen robe for Frigg, a further sign of the devotion and continuity of their bond even in death.
Family
Nanna and Baldr's son is Forseti, the god of justice and reconciliation, whose calm, peace-making nature is sometimes read as a fitting inheritance from parents whose own story is one of profound loyalty and love.