No kind of armour withstood his onset, no man could receive his stroke and live.
Whatsoever his blow fended off it crushed; neither shield nor helm endured the weight of its dint; no greatness of body or of strength could serve.

Thus the victory would have passed to the gods, but that Hother, though his line had already fallen back, darted up, hewed off the club at the haft, and made it useless.

And the gods, when they had lost this weapon, fled incontinently.

But that antiquity vouches for it, it were quite against common belief to think that men prevailed against gods.

(We call them gods in a supposititious rather than in a real sense; for to such we give the title of deity by the custom of nations, not because of their nature.) As for Balder, he took to flight and was saved.