In regard to the German form Phol, we find that it has by its side the form Fal in German names of places connected with fountains. Jacob Grimm has pointed out a "Pholes" fountain in Thuringia, a "Fals" fountain in the Frankish Steigerwald, and in this connection a "Balder" well in Rheinphaltz. In the Danish popular traditions Balder's horse had the ability to produce fountains by tramping on the ground, and Balder's fountain in Seeland is said to have originated in this manner (cp. P. E. Müller on Saxo, Hist., 120). In Saxo, too, Balder gives rise to wells (Victor Balderus, ut afflictum siti militem opportuni liquoris beneficio recrearet, novos humi latices terram altius rimatus operuit—p. 120).
This very circumstance seems to indicate that Phol, Fal, was a common epithet or surname of Balder in Germany, and it must be admitted that this meaning must have appeared to the German mythologists to be confirmed by the Merseburg formula; for in this way alone could it be explained in a simple and natural manner, that Balder is not named in the first line as Odin's companion, although he actually attends Odin, and although the misfortune that befalls "Balder's foal" is the chief subject of the narrative, while Phol on the other hand is not mentioned again in the whole formula, although he is named in the first line as Odin's companion.
This simple and incontrovertible conclusion, that Phol and Balder in the Merseburg formula are identical is put beyond all doubt by a more thorough examination of the Norse records. In these it is demonstrated that the name Falr was also known in the North as an epithet of Balder.
The first books of Saxo are based exclusively on the myths concerning gods and heroes. There is not a single person, not a single name, which Saxo did not borrow from the mythic traditions. Among them is also a certain Fjallerus, who is mentioned in bk. i. 160. In the question in regard to the Norse form which was Latinised into Fjallerus, we must remember that Saxo writes Hjallus (Hist., pp. 371, 672) for Hjali (cp. p. 370), and alternately Colo, Collo, and Collerus (Hist., pp. 56, 136, 181), and that he uses the broken form Bjarbi for Barri (Hist., p. 250). In accordance with this the Latin form Fjallerus must correspond to the Norse Falr, and there is, in fact, in the whole Old Norse literature, not a single name to be found corresponding to this excepting Falr, for the name Fjalarr, the only other one to be thought of in this connection should, according to the rules followed by Saxo, be Latinised into Fjallarus or Fjalarus, but not into Fjallerus.
Of this Fjallerus Saxo relates that he was banished by an enemy, and the report says that Fjallerus betook himself to the place which is unknown to our populations, and which is called Odáins-akr (quem ad locum, cui Undensakre nomen est, nostris ignotum populis concessisse est fama—p. 160.)
The mythology mentions only a single person who by an enemy was transferred to Odáinsakr, and that is Balder. (Of Odáinsakr and Balder's abode there, see Nos. 44-53).
The enemy who transfers Falr to the realm of immortality is, according to Saxo, a son of Horvendillus, that is to say, a son of the mythological Örvandill, Groa's husband and Svipdag's father (see Nos. 108, 109). Svipdag has already once before been mistaken by Saxo for Hotherus (see No. 101). Hotherus is, again, the Latin form for Hödr. Hence it is Balder's banishment by Hödr to the subterranean realms of immortality of which we here read in Saxo where the latter speaks of Fal's banishment to Odáinsakr by a son of Orvandel.
When Balder dies by a flaug hurled by Hödr he stands in the midst of a rain of javelins. He is the centre of a mannhringr, where all throw or shoot at him: sumir skjóta á hann, sumir höggva til, sumir berja grjóti (Gylfaginning). In this lies the mythical explanation of the paraphrase Fal's rain, which occurs in the last strophe of a poem attributed to the skald Gisle Surson. In Gisle's saga we read that he was banished on account of manslaughter, but by the aid of his faithful wife he was able for thirteen years to endure a life of persecutions and conflicts, until he finally was surprised and fell by the weapons of his foes. Surrounded by his assailants, he is said to have sung the strophe in question, in which he says that "the beloved, beautiful, brave Fulla of his hall," that is to say, his wife, "is to enquire for him, her friend," for whose sake "Fal's rain" now "falls thick and fast," while "keen edges bite him." In a foregoing strophe Gisle has been compared with a "Balder of the shield," and this shield-Balder now, as in the Balder of the myth, is the focus of javelins and swords, while he like Balder, has a beautiful and faithful wife, who, like Nanna, is to take his death to heart. If the name Nanna, as has been assumed by Vigfusson and others, is connected with the verb nenna, and means "the brave one," then rekkilát Fulla, "the brave Fulla of Gisle's hall," is an all the more appropriate reference to Nanna, since Fulla and she are intimately connected in the mythology, and are described as the warmest of friends (Gylfaginning). Briefly stated: in the poem Gisle is compared with Balder, his wife with Nanna, his death with Balder's death, and the rain of weapons by which he falls with Fal's rain.
In a strophe composed by Refr (Younger Edda, i. 240) the skald offers thanks to Odin, the giver of the skaldic art. The Asa-father is here called Fals hrannvala brautar fannar salar valdi ("The ruler of the hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal"). This long paraphrase means, as has also been assumed by others, the ruler of heaven. Thus heaven is designated as "the hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal." The "drift" which belongs to heaven, and not to the earth, is the cloud. The heavens are "the hall of the cloud." But in order that the word "drift" might be applied in this manner it had to be united with an appropriate word, showing that the heavens were meant. This is done by the adjective phrase "of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal." Standing alone, "the drift of the way of the billow-falcons" could not possibly mean anything else than the billow white with foam, since "billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for ships, and the "way of the billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for the sea. By adding the name Falr the meaning is changed from "sea" to "sky." By Fal's "billow-falcons" must therefore be meant objects whose course is through the air, just as the course of the ships is on the sea, and which traverse the drift of the sky, the cloud, just as the ships plough through the drift of the sea, the white-crested billow. Such a paraphrase could not possibly avoid drawing the fancy of the hearers and readers to the atmosphere strewn with clouds and penetrated by sunbeams, that is, to Odin's hall. Balder is a sun-god, as his myth, taken as a whole, plainly shows, and as is manifested by his epithet; raudbrikar rikr rækir (see No. 53). Thus Fal, like Balder, is a divinity of the sun, a being which sends the sunbeams down through the drifts of the clouds. As he, furthermore, like Balder, stood in a rain of weapons under circumstances sufficiently familiar for such a rain to be recognised when designated as Fal's, and as he, finally, like Balder, was sent by an opponent to the realm of immortality in the lower world, then Falr and Balder must be identical.
Their identity is furthermore confirmed by the fact that Balder in early Christian times was made a historical king of Westphalia. The statement concerning this, taken from Anglo-Saxon or German sources, has entered into the foreword to Gylfaginning. Nearly all lands and peoples have, according to the belief of that time, received their names from ancient chiefs. The Franks were said to be named after one Francio, the East Goth after Ostrogotha, the Angles after Angul, Denmark after Dan, &c. The name Phalia, Westphalia, was explained in the same manner, and as Balder's name was Phol, Fal, this name of his gave rise to the name of the country in question. For the same reason the German poem Biterolf makes Balder (Paltram) into king ze Pülle. (Compare the local name Pölde, which, according to J. Grimm, is found in old manuscripts written Polidi and Pholidi.) In the one source Balder is made a king in Pholidi, since Phol is a name of Balder, and in the other source he is for the same reason made a king in Westphalia, since Phal is a variation of Phol, and likewise designated Balder. "Biterolf" has preserved the record of the fact that Balder was not only the stateliest hero to be found, but also the most pure in morals, and a man much praised. Along with Balder, Gylfaginning speaks of another son of Odin, Siggi, who is said to have become a king in Frankland. The same reason for which Fal-Balder was made a king in Westphalia also made the apocryphal Siggi in question the progenitor of Frankian kings. The Frankian branch to which the Merovingian kings belonged bore the name Sigambrians, and to explain this name the son Siggi was given to Odin, and he was made the progenitor and eponym of the Sigambrians.