Idunn and the Golden Apples

In a garden in Asgard, the faces gathered around the golden apple tree never wrinkled and never turned gray. The secret lay in a small basket full of shining golden apples, and in the hands of a goddess who had never left her garden.

Then one season, those faces changed. The shoulders of the gods began to droop, their hair slowly turned gray, and their eyes lost their old sparkle. The old Norse peoples told one another what had happened to that garden and its basket of golden apples. It all began with a long journey taken by Odin and Loki, who was as ready to do good as he was to make trouble.

The goddess who kept that garden was named Idunn. Golden apples grew on the trees in her garden, and whoever ate one each day would never grow a single year older. Every morning Idunn picked the apples with her own hands and filled her basket, so that the gods and goddesses could stop by in turn and eat. Idunn never left her garden. She stayed there all day beside her husband, the god Bragi, listening to him tell a long story that never came to an end.

The fateful journey began when Odin, father of the gods, set out with Loki into the land of humans. From there they went on, deep into the country near Jotunheim, the home of the giants. It was a barren land, with no trees and no birds. Hunger came upon them, and there was nothing to eat anywhere around.

Loki searched high and low and at last caught a wild ox. He killed it, cut the meat into pieces, threaded them onto spits, and lit a fire to roast them. But strangely, no matter how long he waited, the meat stayed as raw as if it had never touched the flame. Loki piled on more wood and roasted it again. Every hour he took the meat out to check, and every time it was still completely raw. Odin saw at once that this was no ordinary thing but the magic of the giants. He walked on, leaving Loki alone, still determined to cook the meat.

Just as the sky began to lighten, Loki lifted the spit once more, and he heard wings beating overhead. A giant eagle, the largest Loki had ever seen, was circling right above the fire. "Can you not cook your food?" the eagle called. Loki answered that he could not. The eagle offered to cook it for him in exchange for a share of the meat. With only a few strong beats of its wings over the fire, the flames roared up, and the meat was cooked in an instant.

But the eagle was far too greedy. It swooped down and snatched piece after piece, until Loki had almost nothing left to eat. In a rage, Loki swung the spit and struck at the bird. The wooden stick hit the breast of the eagle with a clang, as if it had struck metal. Then it stuck fast there and would not come loose. Before Loki could let go, the eagle shot up into the sky, dragging him along through the air.

The eagle carried Loki over the river that separates Jotunheim from the world of humans, and flew on and on into the frozen land of the giants. The cold wind cut through his skin. Below him, mountains shot columns of fire through every crack in the rock. The eagle dropped Loki onto a huge block of ice and vanished into a gorge.

A day later his captor returned. This time he came not as an eagle but in his true form, a giant named Thiazi. He asked Loki whether he wanted to leave the ice and go back to safe, warm Asgard. Loki said he did, with tears frozen on his face from the cold. Thiazi named his price. He would let Loki go only if Loki promised to bring him the golden apples of Idunn.

Loki refused, saying it could not be done. Thiazi walked away and left him in the icy wind. The next time the giant came back and asked again, Loki finally gave in. Idunn was careful with her basket of apples, he admitted, but she was also trusting, and perhaps he could find a way to lure her outside the walls of Asgard. At once Thiazi made Loki swear an oath before Yggdrasil, the World Tree, that he would lure Idunn beyond the wall. Loki swore, only to win his freedom from that freezing block of ice. Thiazi became an eagle again, carried Loki back across the river, and set him down in the land of humans. Then he left Loki to find his own way home to Asgard.

When Loki walked into Asgard, worn out with hunger after so many days of wandering, everyone thought he had simply gone hungry because he was so busy roasting meat. They teased him about it again and again. Still, they pulled him into a feast and fed him well. No one knew of the oath he had been forced to make on that faraway block of ice. When the feast was over, everyone went out to the garden of Idunn as usual. Idunn gave each of them a golden apple, and after eating, they were all glad to know they would not grow a day older. Then they went home one by one. Only Loki lingered in the garden.

"Why are you still here, clever Loki?" Idunn asked.

"I am looking at the apples," Loki replied. "I wonder whether they are as bright as the ones I saw yesterday."

"There are no apples in the world brighter than mine," Idunn declared.

"The ones I saw were brighter still," said Loki. "And they smelled sweeter too, Idunn."

When Idunn heard this, her eyes filled with tears. She was sad to think there might be apples somewhere even lovelier than her own. Loki told her to go outside the walls and see for herself. She had never left her garden, he said, so she could not know what else the world held. Believing him, Idunn took her basket of apples and walked out through the gate of Asgard.

She had barely begun to look around when she heard wings beating overhead. The giant eagle swooped down and seized Idunn and her basket. It flew straight across the world of humans, over the river, and deep into a cave inside the fiery mountains of Jotunheim. There Thiazi took his true form and demanded that Idunn give him the apples to eat. Idunn firmly refused, saying the apples were for the gods alone. Thiazi snatched the basket, but the moment he touched it, the golden apples shriveled up. They would be no use to him unless Idunn gave them with her own hands. So he kept her in the cave, day after day, hoping she would change her mind.

With no Idunn to pick apples each morning, the gods slowly noticed something troubling. Their steps were no longer light as before, their shoulders drooped, and their eyes no longer sparkled like the morning dew. Then they understood what lay ahead. The hair of Frigga would turn white, and the golden hair of Sif would fade. The wisdom of Odin would grow dim, and Thor would no longer have the strength to hurl his lightning. All of Asgard was filled with worry. The light of their stronghold seemed to fade a little more each day, though everyone still believed that things would be put right.

Odin called for his two ravens, Hugin and Munin, who flew through all the worlds to hear the news. They perched on his shoulders and whispered the whole story from beginning to end. They told of Thiazi, of the basket of apples, and of how Loki himself had lured Idunn outside the walls. When they had heard it all, the gods held a council. Then Thor came and seized Loki, his angry voice rolling like thunder, and blamed him for what had happened. Loki quickly begged to be allowed to stay in Asgard, and promised to make amends himself. In the end the gods gave their judgment. Loki must go all the way to Jotunheim and use his own cunning to bring Idunn home.

Loki borrowed the coat of falcon feathers that belonged to Frigga, the wife of Odin. He put it on and flew straight to Jotunheim in the shape of a falcon. He circled until he found Skadi, the daughter of Thiazi. Then he swooped down so that she could catch him and keep him as a pet. One day Skadi carried the falcon into the very cave where Idunn was held.

The moment he saw Idunn, Loki knew that half the task was done. He did not stay by Skadi a moment longer but darted up onto the high rocks of the cave. Skadi wept for the pet that had flown away. She searched and called for a while, then went off.

Loki flew to the side of Idunn and called out to her. When she realized that one of the gods of Asgard had come for her, Idunn wept for joy. He told her what she must do. Then, with a spell, he turned Idunn into a small sparrow. Before she changed, Idunn managed to take all the golden apples from her basket. She threw them into deep cracks in the rock, where the giant would never find them.

When Skadi came back to the cave, she saw the falcon dart out with a little sparrow beside it, and she called for her father. Thiazi knew at once that the falcon was Loki and the sparrow was Idunn. He turned into a giant eagle again and gave chase. The falcon and the sparrow had already flown out of sight, but the eagle was much faster and slowly closed the distance.

From the walls of Asgard, the gods could clearly see a small falcon straining its wings, with a sparrow flying close beside it. Behind them came a giant eagle, almost touching their tail feathers, drawing closer bit by bit. The gods knew at once that it was Loki and Idunn, with Thiazi in pursuit. They hurried to pile up wood and lit great fires along the walls.

The falcon and the sparrow shot straight through a gap between the fires and landed safely inside the walls of Asgard. Thiazi flew in behind them, but he could find no way through the sea of flame. His huge wings beat wildly against the fire, and then he fell, never to trouble Asgard again.

Idunn returned to her garden and sat in her golden house, whose window opened straight onto the rows of trees. Once again she picked apples every morning, once again she filled her basket, and once again she gave each god a shining golden apple as before. The steps of the gods grew light again, and their eyes shone like drops of morning dew, as though the garden had never been without Idunn for a single day. The two pictures from the start of the story, the bright one and the fading one, had become one again, as bright as at the very beginning. And in that garden Idunn sat as before, her hands full of golden apples, never growing any older.