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 G.o.d and G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ds, 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 Jotunheim. 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 Thia.s.si 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 G.o.ds only."
"Then I shall take the apples from you," said Thia.s.si 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, Hodur 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses.
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 G.o.ds 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 Thia.s.si 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 G.o.ds.
Then Thor the Strong went to Loki and laid hands upon him. When Loki found himself in the grip of the strong G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. "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 G.o.ds," said Thor, "is that thou, the cunning one, shouldst go to Jotunheim, 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 Jotunheim in the form of a falcon.
He searched through Jotunheim until he found Thia.s.si"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 Jotunheim 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 Thia.s.si, 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 Thia.s.si in pursuit.
As they watched the eagle winging nearer and nearer, the Dwellers in Asgard were fearful that the falcon and the sparrow would be caught upon and that Iduna would be taken again by Thia.s.si. They lighted great fires upon the wall, knowing that Loki would find a way through the fires, bringing Iduna with him, but that Thia.s.si would not find a way.
The falcon and the sparrow flew toward the fires. Loki went between the flames and brought Iduna with him. And Thia.s.si, coming up to the fires and finding no way through, beat his wings against the flames. He fell down from the wall and the death that came to him afterwards was laid to Loki.
Thus Iduna was brought back to Asgard. Once again she sat in the golden house that opened to her garden, once again she plucked the shining apples off the tree she tended, and once again she gave them to the Dwellers in Asgard. And the Dwellers in Asgard walked lightly again, and brightness came into their eyes and into their cheeks; age no more approached them; youth came back; light and joy were again in Asgard.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
SIF"S GOLDEN HAIR: HOW LOKI WROUGHT MISCHIEF IN ASGARD
All who dwelt in Asgard, the aesir and the Asyniur, who were the G.o.ds and the G.o.ddesses, and the Vanir, who were the friends of the G.o.ds and the G.o.ddesses, were wroth with Loki. It was no wonder they were wroth with him, for he had let the Giant Thia.s.si carry off Iduna and her golden apples. Still, it must be told that the show they made of their wrath made Loki ready to do more mischief in Asgard.
One day he saw a chance to do mischief that made his heart rejoice. Sif, the wife of Thor, was lying asleep outside her house. Her beautiful golden hair flowed all round her. Loki knew how much Thor loved that shining hair, and how greatly Sif prized it because of Thor"s love.