Mistletoe is a parasitic tree that grows only on other trees. It has no roots of its own and will die when its host dies. Was it a branch of mistletoe from Shadow's vigil tree that ultimately destroyed Loki, et.al.?

Hmm... I don't know anything about mistletoe. I thought it grew on bushes.

Is Loki in AG killed by mistletoe? I don't remember. If so, I see one connection there, but it's a rather obvious one: Loki brings about Baldr's death by fashioning a dart from mistletoe (the only thing that could kill Baldr) and giving it to Hodr, Baldr's blind brother. Hodr accidentally kills his brother, all the gods mourn, and Norse mythology continues to be the cheeriest thing ever.

I just had to check. In the Edda, where this whole thing with the mistletoe is described, it says: "There stood sprouted above the hill, thin and very fair the mistletoe" (my own faulty translation from Swedish). Which could, of course, mean that the mistletoe was hanging from another tree or actually growing directly on the ground.

In Swedish schools we're usually told that it was a thistle, not a mistletoe, that killed Balder. It might be a common mistranslation from old Norse, but might also be because mistletoe isn't very common here. In other words, give the kids an image they can understand.

As for Norse mythology being "the cheeriest thing ever" - weeeell, if you were buried in snow (and in darkness, too) for six months out of the year, and spent the rest of it just being merely cold... that's what you'd come up with. We don't have Ingmar Bergman and one of the highest suicide rates in the world for nothing.

Norse mythology is fun when it involves Thor quaffing things and fighting and laughing merrily... or when its Jack Kirby Thor saying stuff like "I SAY THEE NAY!"