The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner • Paragraph 1736
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It will be remembered that all the gods of Iceland were once gathered together so that a general oath might be exacted of every plant "that grew upon the earth," that they would do no harm to Balder the Beautiful. The Mistletoe did not take the oath, because it does not grow upon the earth but upon a tree. Then the enemy fashioned an arrow out of the mistletoe, and killed Balder. There is a modern idea that the story is a myth representing the death of Spring, for a great many similar stories occur in widely distant places.