These orders were rapidly carried out, and soon tears hung from every plant and tree, the ground was saturated with moisture, and metals and stones, in spite of their hard hearts, wept too.
On their way home the messengers passed a dark cave, in which they saw the crouching form of a giantess named Thok, whom some mythologists suppose to have been Loki in disguise; when they asked her also to shed a tear, she mocked them and fled into the dark recesses of her cave, declaring that she would never weep and that Hel might retain her prey forever.
“Thok she weepeth
With dry tears
For Balder’s death—
Neither in life, nor yet in death,
Gave he me gladness.
Let Hel keep her prey.”
Elder Edda (Howitt’s version).
As soon as the returning messengers arrived in Asgard, all the gods crowded around them to know the result of their mission; but their faces, all alight with the joy of anticipation, soon grew dark with despair when they heard that, as one creature refused the tribute of tears, they should behold Balder on earth no more.