The Children of Odin
The Book of Northern Myths
Master storyteller Padraic Colum's rich, musical voice captures all the
magic and majesty of the Norse sagas in his retellings of the adventures
of the gods and goddesses who lived in the Northern paradise of Asgard
before the dawn of history.
Here are the matchless tales of All-Father Odin, who crosses the Rainbow
Bridge to walk among men in Midgard and sacrifices his right eye to
drink from the Well of Wisdom; of Thor, whose mighty hammer defends
Asgard; of Loki, whose mischievous cunning leads him to treachery
against the gods; of giants, dragons, dwarfs and Valkyries; and of the
terrible last battle that destroyed their world.
These ancient stories from Northern Europe, which make up one of the
great myth cycles of Western civilization, spring to life in _The
Children of Odin_. This classic volume, first published in 1920 and
reissued in 1962, is now available for the first time in paperback,
illustrated with the original line drawings by Willy Pogany, to inspire
a new generation of readers.
* * * * *
The late Padraic Colum was a poet, playwright, founder of the _Irish
Review_ and a leader of the Irish Renaissance, but he is perhaps best
known today for his outstanding books for children. He was awarded the
Regina Medal in 1961 for his "distinguished contribution to children's
literature," honoring works like _The Children's Homer_, _The Golden
Fleece_ (a Newbery Honor Book), _The Arabian Nights_, _The King of
Ireland's Son_ and _Roofs of Gold_.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
THE CHILDREN OF ODIN
The Book of Northern Myths
by
PADRAIC COLUM
illustrated by
Willy Pogany
Collier Books
Macmillan Publishing Company
New York
Collier Macmillan Publishers
London
Copyright Macmillan Publishing Company, a division of
Macmillan, Inc., 1920; copyright renewed by
Padraic Colum and Macmillan Publishing Company 1948
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the Publisher.
Macmillan Publishing Company
866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022
Collier Macmillan Canada, Inc.
_The Children of Odin_ is also published in a
hardcover edition by Macmillan Publishing Company.
First Collier Books edition 1984
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972.
The children of Odin.
Summary: A retelling of the Norse sagas about Odin,
Freya, Thor, Loki and the other gods and goddesses who
lived in Asgard before the dawn of history.
1. Mythology, Norse--Juvenile literature.
[1. Mythology, Norse] I. Pogany, Willy, 1882-1955, ill.
II. Title.
BL860.C63 1984b 293'.13 83-20368
ISBN 0-02-042100-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
PART I _The Dwellers in Asgard_
1. Far Away and Long Ago 3
2. The Building of the Wall 6
3. Iduna and Her Apples: How Loki Put the
Gods in Danger 13
4. Sif's Golden Hair: How Loki Wrought
Mischief in Asgard 27
5. How Brock Brought Judgment on Loki 34
6. How Freya Gained Her Necklace and How
Her Loved One Was Lost to Her 44
7. How Frey Won Gerda, the Giant Maiden,
and How He Lost His Magic Sword 51
8. Heimdall and Little Hnossa: How All
Things Came to Be 62
9. The All-Father's Forebodings: How He
Leaves Asgard 69
PART II _Odin the Wanderer_
1. Odin Goes to Mimir's Well: His Sacrifice
for Wisdom 77
2. Odin Faces an Evil Man 82
3. Odin Wins for Men the Magic Mead 90
4. Odin Tells to Vidar, His Silent Son, the
Secret of His Doings 99
5. Thor and Loki in the Giants' City 102
6. How Thor and Loki Befooled Thrym the
Giant 116
7. Ægir's Feast: How Thor Triumphed 124
8. The Dwarf's Hoard, and the Curse that
It Brought 136
PART III _The Witch's Heart_
1. Foreboding in Asgard 151
2. Loki the Betrayer 155
3. Loki Against the Æsir 164
4. The Valkyrie 169
5. The Children of Loki 174
6. Baldur's Doom 180
7. Loki's Punishment 193
PART IV _The Sword of the Volsungs and the
Twilight of the Gods_
1. Sigurd's Youth 199
2. The Sword Gram and the Dragon Fafnir 208
3. The Dragon's Blood 215
4. The Story of Sigmund and Signy 223
5. The Story of Sigmund and Sinfiotli 233
6. The Story of the Vengeance of the
Volsungs and of the Death of Sinfiotli 239
7. Brynhild in the House of Flame 245
8. Sigurd at the House of the Nibelungs 250
9. How Brynhild Was Won for Gunnar 255
10. The Death of Sigurd 260
11. The Twilight of the Gods 265
PART I
THE DWELLERS IN ASGARD
[Illustration]
FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO
Once there was another Sun and another Moon; a different Sun and a
different Moon from the ones we see now. Sol was the name of that Sun
and Mani was the name of that Moon. But always behind Sol and Mani
wolves went, a wolf behind each. The wolves caught on them at last and
they devoured Sol and Mani. And then the world was in darkness and cold.
In those times the Gods lived, Odin and Thor, Hödur and Baldur, Tyr and
Heimdall, Vidar and Vali, as well as Loki, the doer of good and the doer
of evil. And the beautiful Goddesses were living then, Frigga, Freya,
Nanna, Iduna, and Sif. But in the days when the Sun and Moon were
destroyed the Gods were destroyed too--all the Gods except Baldur who
had died before that time, Vidar and Vali, the sons of Odin, and Modi
and Magni, the sons of Thor.
At that time, too, there were men and women in the world. But before the
Sun and the Moon were devoured and before the Gods were destroyed,
terrible things happened in the world. Snow fell on the four corners of
the earth and kept on falling for three seasons. Winds came and blew
everything away. And the people of the world who had lived on in spite
of the snow and the cold and the winds fought each other, brother
killing brother, until all the people were destroyed.
Also there was another earth at that time, an earth green and beautiful.
But the terrible winds that blew leveled down forests and hills and
dwellings. Then fire came and burnt the earth. There was darkness, for
the Sun and the Moon were devoured. The Gods had met with their doom.
And the time in which all these things happened was called Ragnarök, the
Twilight of the Gods.
Then a new Sun and a new Moon appeared and went traveling through the
heavens; they were more lovely than Sol and Mani, and no wolves followed
behind them in chase. The earth became green and beautiful again, and in
a deep forest that the fire had not burnt a woman and a man wakened up.
They had been hidden there by Odin and left to sleep during Ragnarök,
the Twilight of the Gods.
Lif was the woman's name, and Lifthrasir was the man's. They moved
through the world, and their children and their children's children made
people for the new earth. And of the Gods were left Vidar and Vali, the
sons of Odin, and Modi and Magni, the sons of Thor; on the new earth
Vidar and Vali found tablets that the older Gods had written on and had
left there for them, tablets telling of all that had happened before
Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods.
And the people who lived after Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods, were
not troubled, as the people in the older days were troubled, by the
terrible beings who had brought destruction upon the world and upon men
and women, and who from the beginning had waged war upon the Gods.
[Illustration]
THE BUILDING OF THE WALL
Always there had been war between the Giants and the Gods--between the
Giants who would have destroyed the world and the race of men, and the
Gods who would have protected the race of men and would have made the
world more beautiful.
There are many stories to be told about the Gods, but the first one that
should be told to you is the one about the building of their City.
The Gods had made their way up to the top of a high mountain and there
they decided to build a great City for themselves that the Giants could
never overthrow. The City they would call "Asgard," which means the
Place of the Gods. They would build it on a beautiful plain that was on
the top of that high mountain. And they wanted to raise round their
City the highest and strongest wall that had ever been built.
Now one day when they were beginning to build their halls and their
palaces a strange being came to them. Odin, the Father of the Gods, went
and spoke to him. "What dost thou want on the Mountain of the Gods?" he
asked the Stranger.
"I know what is in the mind of the Gods," the Stranger said. "They would
build a City here. I cannot build palaces, but I can build great walls
that can never be overthrown. Let me build the wall round your City."
"How long will it take you to build a wall that will go round our City?"
said the Father of the Gods.
"A year, O Odin," said the Stranger.
Now Odin knew that if a great wall could be built around it the Gods
would not have to spend all their time defending their City, Asgard,
from the Giants, and he knew that if Asgard were protected, he himself
could go amongst men and teach them and help them. He thought that no
payment the Stranger could ask would be too much for the building of
that wall.
That day the Stranger came to the Council of the Gods, and he swore that
in a year he would have the great wall built. Then Odin made oath that
the Gods would give him what he asked in payment if the wall was
finished to the last stone in a year from that day.
The Stranger went away and came back on the morrow. It was the first day
of Summer when he started work. He brought no one to help him except a
great horse.
Now the Gods thought that this horse would do no more than drag blocks
of stone for the building of the wall. But the horse did more than this.
He set the stones in their places and mortared them together. And day
and night and by light and dark the horse worked, and soon a great wall
was rising round the palaces that the Gods themselves were building.
"What reward will the Stranger ask for the work he is doing for us?" the
Gods asked one another.
Odin went to the Stranger. "We marvel at the work you and your horse are
doing for us," he said. "No one can doubt that the great wall of Asgard
will be built up by the first day of Summer. What reward do you claim?
We would have it ready for you."
The Stranger turned from the work he was doing, leaving the great horse
to pile up the blocks of stone. "O Father of the Gods," he said, "O
Odin, the reward I shall ask for my work is the Sun and the Moon, and
Freya, who watches over the flowers and grasses, for my wife."
Now when Odin heard this he was terribly angered, for the price the
Stranger asked for his work was beyond all prices. He went amongst the
other Gods who were then building their shining palaces within the great
wall and he told them what reward the Stranger had asked. The Gods said,
"Without the Sun and the Moon the world will wither away." And the
Goddesses said, "Without Freya all will be gloom in Asgard."
They would have let the wall remain unbuilt rather than let the Stranger
have the reward he claimed for building it. But one who was in the
company of the Gods spoke. He was Loki, a being who only half belonged
to the Gods; his father was the Wind Giant. "Let the Stranger build the
wall round Asgard," Loki said, "and I will find a way to make him give
up the hard bargain he has made with the Gods. Go to him and tell him
that the wall must be finished by the first day of Summer, and that if
it is not finished to the last stone on that day the price he asks will
not be given to him."
The Gods went to the Stranger and they told him that if the last stone
was not laid on the wall on the first day of the Summer not Sol or Mani,
the Sun and the Moon, nor Freya would be given him. And now they knew
that the Stranger was one of the Giants.
The Giant and his great horse piled up the wall more quickly than
before. At night, while the Giant slept, the horse worked on and on,
hauling up stones and laying them on the wall with his great forefeet.
And day by day the wall around Asgard grew higher and higher.
But the Gods had no joy in seeing that great wall rising higher and
higher around their palaces. The Giant and his horse would finish the
work by the first day of Summer, and then he would take the Sun and the
Moon, Sol and Mani, and Freya away with him.
But Loki was not disturbed. He kept telling the Gods that he would find
a way to prevent him from finishing his work, and thus he would make the
Giant forfeit the terrible price he had led Odin to promise him.
It was three days to Summer time. All the wall was finished except the
gateway. Over the gateway a stone was still to be placed. And the Giant,
before he went to sleep, bade his horse haul up a great block of stone
so that they might put it above the gateway in the morning, and so
finish the work two full days before Summer.
It happened to be a beautiful moonlit night. Svadilfare, the Giant's
great horse, was hauling the largest stone he ever hauled when he saw a
little mare come galloping toward him. The great horse had never seen so
pretty a little mare and he looked at her with surprise.
"Svadilfare, slave," said the little mare to him and went frisking past.
Svadilfare put down the stone he was hauling and called to the little
mare. She came back to him. "Why do you call me 'Svadilfare, slave'?"
said the great horse.
"Because you have to work night and day for your master," said the
little mare. "He keeps you working, working, working, and never lets you
enjoy yourself. You dare not leave that stone down and come and play
with me."
"Who told you I dare not do it?" said Svadilfare.
"I know you daren't do it," said the little mare, and she kicked up her
heels and ran across the moonlit meadow.
Now the truth is that Svadilfare was tired of working day and night.
When he saw the little mare go galloping off he became suddenly
discontented. He left the stone he was hauling on the ground. He looked
round and he saw the little mare looking back at him. He galloped after
her.
He did not catch up on the little mare. She went on swiftly before him.
On she went over the moonlit meadow, turning and looking back now and
again at the great Svadilfare, who came heavily after her. Down the
mountainside the mare went, and Svadilfare, who now rejoiced in his
liberty and in the freshness of the wind and in the smell of the
flowers, still followed her. With the morning's light they came near a
cave and the little mare went into it. They went through the cave. Then
Svadilfare caught up on the little mare and the two went wandering
together, the little mare telling Svadilfare stories of the Dwarfs and
the Elves.
They came to a grove and they stayed together in it, the little mare
playing so nicely with him that the great horse forgot all about time
passing. And while they were in the grove the Giant was going up and
down, searching for his great horse.
He had come to the wall in the morning, expecting to put the stone over
the gateway and so finish his work. But the stone that was to be lifted
up was not near him. He called for Svadilfare, but his great horse did
not come. He went to search for him, and he searched all down the
mountainside and he searched as far across the earth as the realm of the
Giants. But he did not find Svadilfare.
The Gods saw the first day of Summer come and the gateway of the wall
stand unfinished. They said to each other that if it were not finished
by the evening they need not give Sol and Mani to the Giant, nor the
maiden Freya to be his wife. The hours of the summer day went past and
the Giant did not raise the stone over the gateway. In the evening he
came before them.
"Your work is not finished," Odin said. "You forced us to a hard
bargain and now we need not keep it with you. You shall not be given Sol
and Mani nor the maiden Freya."
"Only the wall I have built is so strong I would tear it down," said the
Giant. He tried to throw down one of the palaces, but the Gods laid
hands on him and thrust him outside the wall he had built. "Go, and
trouble Asgard no more," Odin commanded.
Then Loki returned to Asgard. He told the Gods how he had transformed
himself into a little mare and had led away Svadilfare, the Giant's
great horse. And the Gods sat in their golden palaces behind the great
wall and rejoiced that their City was now secure, and that no enemy
could ever enter it or overthrow it. But Odin, the Father of the Gods,
as he sat upon his throne was sad in his heart, sad that the Gods had
got their wall built by a trick; that oaths had been broken, and that a
blow had been struck in injustice in Asgard.
[Illustration]
IDUNA AND HER APPLES: HOW LOKI PUT THE GODS IN DANGER
In Asgard there was a garden, and in that garden there grew a tree, and
on that tree there grew shining apples. Thou knowst, O well-loved one,
that every day that passes makes us older and brings us to that day when
we will be bent and feeble, gray-headed and weak-eyed. But those shining
apples that grew in Asgard--they who ate of them every day grew never a
day older, for the eating of the apples kept old age away.
Iduna, the Goddess, tended the tree on which the shining apples grew.
None would grow on the tree unless she was there to tend it. No one but
Iduna might pluck the shining apples. Each morning she plucked them and
left them in her basket and every day the Gods and Goddesses came to her
garden that they might eat the shining apples and so stay for ever
young.
Iduna never went from her garden. All day and every day she stayed in
the garden or in her golden house beside it, and all day and every day
she listened to Bragi, her husband, tell a story that never had an end.
Ah, but a time came when Iduna and her apples were lost to Asgard, and
the Gods and Goddesses felt old age approach them. How all that happened
shall be told thee, O well beloved.
Odin, the Father of the Gods, often went into the land of men to watch
over their doings. Once he took Loki with him, Loki, the doer of good
and the doer of evil. For a long time they went traveling through the
world of men. At last they came near Jötunheim, the realm of the Giants.
It was a bleak and empty region. There were no growing things there, not
even trees with berries. There were no birds, there were no animals. As
Odin, the Father of the Gods, and Loki, the doer of good and the doer of
evil, went through this region hunger came upon them. But in all the
land around they saw nothing that they could eat.
Loki, running here and running there, came at last upon a herd of wild
cattle. Creeping up on them, he caught hold of a young bull and killed
him. Then he cut up the flesh into strips of meat. He lighted a fire and
put the meat on spits to roast. While the meat was being cooked, Odin,
the Father of the Gods, a little way off, sat thinking on the things he
had seen in the world of men.
Loki made himself busy putting more and more logs on the fire. At last
he called to Odin, and the Father of the Gods came and sat down near the
fire to eat the meal.
But when the meat was taken off the cooking-spits and when Odin went to
cut it, he found that it was still raw. He smiled at Loki for thinking
the meat was cooked, and Loki, troubled that he had made a mistake, put
the meat back, and put more logs upon the fire. Again Loki took the meat
off the cooking-spits and called Odin to the meal.
Odin, when he took the meat that Loki brought him, found that it was as
raw as if it had never been put upon the fire. "Is this a trick of
yours, Loki?" he said.
Loki was so angry at the meat being uncooked that Odin saw he was
playing no tricks. In his hunger he raged at the meat and he raged at
the fire. Again he put the meat on the cooking-spits and put more logs
on the fire. Every hour he would take up the meat, sure that it was now
cooked, and every time he took it off Odin would find that the meat was
as raw as the first time they took it off the fire.
Now Odin knew that the meat must be under some enchantment by the
Giants. He stood up and went on his way, hungry but strong. Loki,
however, would not leave the meat that he had put back on the fire. He
would make it be cooked, he declared, and he would not leave that place
hungry.
The dawn came and he took up the meat again. As he was lifting it off
the fire he heard a whirr of wings above his head. Looking up, he saw a
mighty eagle, the largest eagle that ever appeared in the sky. The eagle
circled round and round and came above Loki's head. "Canst thou not cook
thy food?" the eagle screamed to him.
"I cannot cook it," said Loki.
"I will cook it for thee, if thou wilt give me a share," screamed the
eagle.
"Come, then, and cook it for me," said Loki.
The eagle circled round until he was above the fire. Then flapping his
great wings over it, he made the fire blaze and blaze. A heat that Loki
had never felt before came from the burning logs. In a minute he drew
the meat from the spits and found it was well cooked.
"My share, my share, give me my share," the eagle screamed at him. He
flew down, and seizing on a large piece of meat instantly devoured it.
He seized on another piece. Piece after piece he devoured until it
looked as if Loki would be left with no meat for his meal.
As the eagle seized on the last piece Loki became angry indeed. Taking
up the spit on which the meat had been cooked, he struck at the eagle.
There was a clang as if he had struck some metal. The wood of the spit
did not come away. It stuck to the breast of the eagle. But Loki did not
let go his hold on the spit. Suddenly the eagle rose up in the air.
Loki, who held to the spit that was fastened to the eagle's breast, was
drawn up with him.
Before he knew what had happened Loki was miles and miles up in the air
and the eagle was flying with him toward Jötunheim, the Realm of the
Giants. And the eagle was screaming out, "Loki, friend Loki, I have thee
at last. It was thou who didst cheat my brother of his reward for
building the wall round Asgard. But, Loki, I have thee at last. Know now
that Thiassi the Giant has captured thee, O Loki, most cunning of the
dwellers in Asgard."
Thus the eagle screamed as he went flying with Loki toward Jötunheim,
the Realm of the Giants. They passed over the river that divides
Jötunheim from Midgard, the World of Men. And now Loki saw a terrible
place beneath him, a land of ice and rock. Great mountains were there:
they were lighted by neither sun nor moon, but by columns of fire thrown
up now and again through cracks in the earth or out of the peaks of the
mountains.
Over a great iceberg the eagle hovered. Suddenly he shook the spit from
his breast and Loki fell down on the ice. The eagle screamed out to him,
"Thou art in my power at last, O thou most cunning of all the Dwellers
in Asgard." The eagle left Loki there and flew within a crack in the
mountain.
Miserable indeed was Loki upon that iceberg. The cold was deadly. He
could not die there, for he was one of the Dwellers in Asgard and death
might not come to him that way. He might not die, but he felt bound to
that iceberg with chains of cold.
After a day his captor came to him, not as an eagle this time, but in
his own form, Thiassi the Giant.
"Wouldst thou leave thine iceberg, Loki," he said, "and return to thy
pleasant place in Asgard? Thou dost delight in Asgard, although only by
one-half dost thou belong to the Gods. Thy father, Loki, was the Wind
Giant."
"O that I might leave this iceberg," Loki said, with the tears freezing
on his face.
"Thou mayst leave it when thou showest thyself ready to pay thy ransom
to me," said Thiassi. "Thou wilt have to get me the shining apples that
Iduna keeps in her basket."
"I cannot get Iduna's apples for thee, Thiassi," said Loki.
"Then stay upon the iceberg," said Thiassi the Giant. He went away and
left Loki there with the terrible winds buffeting him as with blows of a
hammer.
When Thiassi came again and spoke to him about his ransom, Loki said,
"There is no way of getting the shining apples from Iduna."
"There must be some way, O cunning Loki," said the Giant.
"Iduna, although she guards well the shining apples, is simple-minded,"
said Loki. "It may be that I shall be able to get her to go outside the
wall of Asgard. If she goes she will bring her shining apples with her,
for she never lets them go out of her hand except when she gives them to
the Gods and Goddesses to eat."
"Make it so that she will go beyond the wall of Asgard," said the Giant.
"If she goes outside of the wall I shall get the apples from her. Swear
by the World-Tree that thou wilt lure Iduna beyond the wall of Asgard.
Swear it, Loki, and I shall let thee go."
"I swear it by Ygdrassil, the World-Tree, that I will lure Iduna beyond
the wall of Asgard if thou wilt take me off this iceberg," said Loki.
Then Thiassi changed himself into a mighty eagle, and taking Loki in his
talons, he flew with him over the stream that divides Jötunheim, the
Realm of the Giants, from Midgard, the World of Men. He left Loki on the
ground of Midgard, and Loki then went on his way to Asgard.
Now Odin had already returned and he had told the Dwellers in Asgard of
Loki's attempt to cook the enchanted meat. All laughed to think that
Loki had been left hungry for all his cunning. Then when he came into
Asgard looking so famished, they thought it was because Loki had had
nothing to eat. They laughed at him more and more. But they brought him
into the Feast Hall and they gave him the best of food with wine out of
Odin's wine cup. When the feast was over the Dwellers in Asgard went to
Iduna's garden as was their wont.
There sat Iduna in the golden house that opened on her garden. Had she
been in the world of men, every one who saw her would have remembered
their own innocence, seeing one who was so fair and good. She had eyes
blue as the blue sky, and she smiled as if she were remembering lovely
things she had seen or heard. The basket of shining apples was beside
her.
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 runes that were
always said in praise of Iduna, and the Dwellers in Asgard went out of
Iduna's garden, each one going to his or her own shining house.
All went except Loki, the doer of good and the doer of evil. Loki sat in
the garden, watching fair and simple Iduna. After a while she spoke to
him and said, "Why dost thou still stay here, wise Loki?"
"To look well on thine apples," Loki said. "I am wondering if the apples
I saw yesterday are really as shining as the apples that are in thy
basket."
"There are no apples in the world as shining as mine," said Iduna.
"The apples I saw were more shining," said Loki. "Aye, and they smelled
better, Iduna."
Iduna was troubled at what Loki, whom she deemed so wise, told her. Her
eyes filled with tears that there might be more shining apples in the
world than hers. "O 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, then, and see," said Loki. "Just outside Asgard is the tree that
has the apples I saw. Thou, Iduna, dost never leave thy garden, and so
thou dost not know what grows in the world. Go outside of Asgard and
see."
"I will go, Loki," said Iduna, the fair and simple.
Iduna went outside the wall of Asgard. She went to the place Loki had
told her that the apples grew in. But as she looked this way and that
way, 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 drew 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; away over Midgard where men lived, away toward
the rocks and snows of Jötunheim. Across the river that flows between
the World of Men and the Realm of the Giants Iduna was borne. Then the
eagle flew into a cleft 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 on 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.
"That I might 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
that I might give them to the Gods only."
"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 under his hands. He left them in the basket
and he set the basket down, for he knew now 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 was poor Iduna 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 Dwellers in
Asgard if she were not there to give them the shining apples to eat.
The Giant came to her again. But still Iduna would not give him the
shining apples. And there in the cave she stayed, the Giant troubling
her every day. And she grew more and more fearful as she saw in her
dreams the Dwellers in Asgard go to her garden--go there, and not being
given the shining apples, feel and see a change coming over themselves
and over each other.
It was as Iduna saw it in her dreams. Every day the Dwellers in Asgard
went to her garden--Odin and Thor, Hödur and Baldur, Tyr and Heimdall,
Vidar and Vali, with Frigga, Freya, Nanna, and Sif. There was no one to
pluck the apples of their tree. And a change began to come over the Gods
and Goddesses.
They no longer walked lightly; their shoulders became bent; their eyes
no longer were as bright as dewdrops. And when they looked upon one
another they saw the change. Age was coming upon the Dwellers 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 strength enough to raise and
fling his thunderbolts. And the Dwellers in Asgard were saddened by this
knowledge, and it seemed to them that all brightness had gone from their
shining City.
Where was Iduna whose apples would give back youth and strength and
beauty to the Dwellers in Asgard? The Gods had searched for her through
the World of Men. No trace of her did they find. But now Odin, searching
through his wisdom, saw a means to get knowledge of where Iduna was
hidden.
He summoned his two ravens, Hugin and Munin, his two ravens that flew
through the earth and through the Realm of the Giants and that knew all
things that were past and all things that were to come. He summoned
Hugin and Munin and they came, and one sat on his right shoulder and one
sat 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.
What Odin learnt from his ravens was told in the Council of the Gods.
Then Thor the Strong went to Loki and laid hands upon him. When Loki
found himself in the grip of the strong God, he said, "What wouldst thou
with me, O Thor?"
"I would hurl thee into a chasm in the ground and strike thee with my
thunder," said the strong God. "It was thou who didst bring it about
that Iduna went from Asgard."
"O Thor," said Loki, "do not crush me with thy thunder. Let me stay in
Asgard. I will strive to win Iduna back."
"The judgment of the Gods," said Thor, "is that thou, the cunning one,
shouldst go to Jötunheim, and by thy craft win Iduna back from the
Giants. Go or else I shall hurl thee into a chasm and crush thee with my
thunder."
"I will go," said Loki.
From Frigga, the wife of Odin, Loki borrowed the dress of falcon
feathers that she owned. He clad himself in it, and flew to Jötunheim in
the form of a falcon.
He searched through Jötunheim until he found Thiassi's daughter, Skadi.
He flew before 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 held.
When Loki saw Iduna there he knew that part of his quest was ended. Now
he had to get Iduna out of Jötunheim and away to Asgard. He stayed no
more with the Giant maid, but flew up into the high rocks of the cave.
Skadi wept for the flight of her pet, but she ceased to search and to
call and went away from the cave.
Then Loki, the doer of good and the doer of evil, flew to where Iduna
was sitting and spoke to her. Iduna, when she knew that one of the
Dwellers in Asgard was near, wept with joy.
Loki told her what she was to do. By the power of a spell that was given
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 flung 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 sparrow and falcon were out of
sight, but Thiassi, knowing that he could make better flight than they,
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 Dwellers
in 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. |
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