Golden Bough. Part VII. Balder The Beautiful. Volume II

The eleventh volume of The Golden Bough series. Fire festivals in exotic nations, magical properties of flowers, the concept of the external soul, and a proposal to solve the mystery of ritual of the golden bough. Frazer's extensive researches into the origin, the evolution, and the meaning of killing of the king of the wood, is summarised with the help of analogies from the myths of other cultures, and finally explained as a symbolic cycle of death, rebirth, and the recharging of the sacred powers of the natural world thought to come from gods to man. (Summary by Leon Harvey)