This illustration depicts the funeral of the god Baldr, the second son of Odin.
In the Norse Mythology, Baldr is the only Gods who has been killed and his death is seen as the first in the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarok.
In the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, he is described as:
“He is the wisest of the Æsir, and the fairest-spoken and most gracious; and that quality attends him, that none may gainsay his judgments. He dwells in the place called Breidablik, which is in heaven; in that place may nothing unclean be”
It is told in Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning that at Baldr's funeral his wife Nanna died of grief and was placed alongside him on his pyre, thus joining her husband in Hel. Hringhorni, Baldr's ship, was the largest of all such vessels and was to serve as the god's funeral ship.
“The Æsir took the body of Baldr and brought it to the sea. Hringhorni is the name of Baldr's ship: it was greatest of all ships; the gods would have launched it and made Baldr's pyre thereon.”


From the Gylfaginning (or the Tricking of Gylfi) that is the first part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda