Hermod (HermoÐ) Asgard's messenger.

A son of Odin. Hermod was bold and brave. It was he who volunteered to go to Hel’s underworld and beg her to release his dead brother, Balder.

Hermod rode off on the great eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, passed the test of the maiden guarding the bridge over the river Gjoll, leaped over the gates of Hel, and confronted the goddess of the underworld herself. He received from her only the promise that she would release Balder if everyone in all of creation would weep for the fallen god. This story is told by Snorri Sturluson in his Prose Edda, although Hermod is also named in various poems in the Poetic Edda and in the heroic lays, confusing his identity in some of those tales. Hermod also stood at Odin’s side at the gates of Valhalla to welcome the dead human heroes brought there from battle by the Valkyries.