Duna and her apples (2)

 

To each God and Goddess Iduna gave a shining apple. Each one ate the apple given, rejoicing to think that they would never become a day older. Then Odin, the Father of the Gods, said the words that were always said in praise of Iduna, and then they all left Iduna’s garden, each one going to his or her own shining house.
All went except Loki, the doer of good and evil. Loki sat in the garden, watching fair and simple Iduna. After a while she spoke to him and said, “Why do you still stay here, wise Loki?”
“To have a better look at your apples,” Loki said. “I am wondering if the apples I saw yesterday are really as shining as the apples that are in your basket.”

“There are no apples in the world as shining as mine,” said Iduna.
“The apples I saw were more shining,” said Loki. “Yes and they smelled better too, Iduna.”
Iduna was troubled at what Loki, whom she thought so wise, told her. Her eyes filled with tears at the thought that there might be more shining apples in the world than hers. ” Loki,” she said, “it cannot be. No apples are more shining, and none smell so sweet, as the apples I pluck off the tree in my garden.”
“Go and see then,” said Loki. “Just outside Asgard is the tree that has the apples I saw. You, never leave your garden, and so you don’t know what grows in the world. Go outside of Asgard and see.”
“I will go, Loki,” said the fair and simple Iduna,.
Iduna went outside the wall of Asgard. She went to the place where Loki had told her that the apples grew. But as she looked this way and that, Iduna heard a whirr of wings above her. Looking up, she saw a mighty eagle, the largest eagle that had ever appeared in the sky.
She ran back toward the gate of Asgard. Then the great eagle swooped down; Iduna felt herself lifted up, and then she was being carried away from Asgard, away, away over Midgard where men lived, away toward the rocks and snows of Jötunheim. Iduna was carried across the river that flows between the World of Men and the kingdom of the Giants. Then the eagle flew into a crack in a mountain and Iduna was left in a cavernous hall lighted up by columns of fire that burst up from the earth.
The eagle loosened his grip on Iduna and she sank down onto the ground of the cavern. The wings and the feathers fell from him and she saw her captor as a terrible Giant.
“Oh, why have you carried me off from Asgard and brought me to this place?” Iduna cried.
“So that I can eat your shining apples, Iduna,” said Thiassi the Giant.
“That will never be, for I will not give them to you,” said Iduna. “Give me the apples to eat, and I shall carry you back to Asgard.”
“No, no, that cannot be. I have been trusted with the shining apples and I can only give them to the Gods.”
“Then I shall take the apples from you,” said Thiassi the Giant.
He took the basket out of her hands and opened it. But when he touched the apples they shriveled. He left them in the basket and put the basket down. He realized that the apples would be no good to him unless Iduna gave them to him with her own hands.
“You must stay with me here until you give me the shining apples,” he said to her.
Then poor Iduna was frightened. She was frightened of the strange cave and frightened of the fire that kept bursting up out of the earth and she was frightened of the terrible Giant. But above all she was frightened to think of the evil that would fall upon the inhabitants in Asgard if she were not there to give them the shining apples to eat.
The Giant came to her again but Iduna still would not give him the shining apples. She stayed there in the cave, with the Giant troubling her every day. She grew more and more fearful as she saw in her dreams the inhabitants in Asgard go to her garden, and not being given the shining apples, feel and see a change coming over themselves and over each other.
It happened exactly as Iduna saw in her dreams. Every day everyone in Asgard went to her garden—Odin ,Thor, Hödur ,Baldur, Tyr , Heimdall, Vidar and Vali, with Frigga, Freya, Nanna, and Sif. There was no one to pluck the apples from the tree. And a change began to come over the Gods and Goddesses.
They no longer walked lightly; their shoulders became bent; their eyes were no longer as bright as dewdrops. When they looked at one another they saw the change. Age was coming on everyone in Asgard.
They knew that the time would come when Frigga would be gray and old; when Sif’s golden hair would fade; when Odin would no longer have his clear wisdom, and when Thor would not have enough strength to raise and throw his thunderbolts. They were saddened by this knowledge, and it seemed to them that all the brightness had gone from their shining City.
Where was Iduna whose apples would give them back youth and strength and beauty? The Gods had searched for her through the World of Men. They couldn’t find any trace of her. However, Odin, saw a way to find out where Iduna was hidden.

He summoned his two ravens, Hugin and Munin, These two ravens flew through the earth and through the kingdom of the Giants and that knew everything that was past and everything that was to come. He summoned Hugin and Munin and they came, and one sat on his right shoulder and the other on his left shoulder and they told him deep secrets. They told him of Thiassi and of his desire for the shining apples that the Dwellers in Asgard ate, and of Loki’s deception of Iduna, the fair and simple.
Odin told the Council of the Gods what he had learnt from his ravens. Then Thor the Strong went to Loki and seized him. When Loki found himself in the grip of the strong God, he said, “What do you want with me Thor?”
“I would like to throw you into a chasm in the ground and strike you with my thunder,” said the strong God. “It is you who is responsible for Iduna leaving Asgard.”
” Thor,” said Loki, “do not crush me with your thunder. Let me stay in Asgard. I will try to get Iduna back.”
“The judgment of the Gods,” said Thor, “is that you, the cunning one, should go to Jötunheim, and by your cunning get Iduna back from the Giants. Go or else I shall throw you into a chasm and crush you with my thunder.”
“I will go,” said Loki.
Loki borrowed the dress of falcon feathers from Frigga, the wife of Odin. He put it on and flew to Jötunheim in the form of a falcon.
He searched through Jötunheim until he found Thiassi’s daughter, Skadi. He flew in front of Skadi and he let the Giant maid catch him and hold him as a pet. One day the Giant maid carried him into the cave where Iduna, the fair and simple, was being held.
When Loki saw Iduna there he knew that part of his quest was ended. Next he had to get Iduna out of Jötunheim and away to Asgard. He didn’t stay with the Giant maid, but flew up into the high rocks of the cave. Skadi wept for the loss of her pet, but at last she ceased searching and left the cave.
Then Loki, the doer of good and evil, flew to where Iduna was sitting and spoke to her. When Iduna knew that one of her friends from Asgard was near, she wept with joy.
Loki told her what she hadto do. By the power of a spell that was given to him he was able to change her into the form of a sparrow. But before she did this she took the shining apples out of her basket and threw them into places where the Giant would never find them.
Skadi, coming back to the cave, saw the falcon fly out with the sparrow beside him. She cried out to her father and the Giant knew that the falcon was Loki and the sparrow was Iduna. He changed himself into the form of a mighty eagle. By this time the sparrow and falcon were out of sight, but Thiassi, knowing that he could fly faster than them, flew toward Asgard.
Soon he saw them. They flew with all the power they had, but the great wings of the eagle brought him nearer and nearer to them. The inhabitants of Asgard, standing on the wall, saw the falcon and the sparrow with the great eagle pursuing them. They knew who they were—Loki and Iduna with Thiassi in pursuit.
As they watched the eagle coming nearer and nearer, those in Asgard were fearful that the falcon and the sparrow would be caught and that Iduna would be taken again by Thiassi. They lighted great fires on the wall, knowing that Loki would find a way through the fires, bringing Iduna with him, but that Thiassi would not find a way.
The falcon and the sparrow flew toward the fires. Loki went between the flames and brought Iduna with him. Thiassi, coming up to the fires and finding no way through, beat his wings against the flames. He fell down from the wall and died.
Thus Iduna was brought back to Asgard. Once again she sat in the golden house that opened onto her garden, once again she plucked the shining apples off the tree she tended, and once again she gave them to the inhabitants of Asgard. Those gods in Asgard walked lightly again, and brightness came into their eyes and into their cheeks; age approached them no more; youth came back; light and joy were again in Asgard.