THEORY
IN THEORY: IÐUNN,
GRANTER OF
ETERNAL YOUTH
By Allison Jean
M
Iðunn, our fair maiden, with flowing golden hair,
Bestow on us your apples, our lives that you may spare.
Iðunn, our fair maiden, without you we grow old,
The power of your apples - too precious to behold.
Our faces crease and wizen, our hair thins and turns white,
Such is life without Iðunn, her apples not in sight.
Iðunn, return to us! We grow old and weary,
Life without The Ever Young is so dark and dreary.
A bird on the horizon, a nut in its beak,
Iðunn has returned to us, savior of the weak.
The apples, fairest Iðunn, grant us from them much brawn,
We’ll fight with you in battle ‘til all enemies are gone.
uch of Norse mythology
is attested in dialects
of Old Norse, a North Germanic
language spoken by Scandinavian
peoples during the European
Middle Ages. The majority of
these aged texts containing the
Norse legends were created in
Iceland and are attributed to two
According to a book in the
collections of manuscripts: the
particular stands out, if only for her
Prose Edda, composed in the 13th
peculiar function and attributions:
Prose Edda, Iðunn is abducted
century by Snorri Sturluson, and
Iðunn (Idunn), goddess of eternal
by the jötunn Þjazi (Thiazi). The
the Poetic Edda, a collection of
youth. The wife of Bragi, the God
story goes that Loki, enraged by
poems anonymously compiled
of Poetry, Iðunn is most often
an eagle stealing away more than
from earlier sources in the 13th
associated with her mysterious
his fair share of the ox he was
century. The Prose Edda and
apples and her ability to grant
roasting, plunged a pole through
the Poetic Edda tend to cover
others eternal youth. Her name
the bird but became attached; he
“BACK IN ASGARD, LOKI LURES
IÐUNN AWAY BY TELLING
HER OF SOME APPLES THAT
WOULD BE WORTH KEEPING.”
couldn’t release his grip on the
pole without plunging to his death.
Loki begs the eagle to stop and the
eagle replies that he would release
Loki only if Iðunn comes out of
Asgard with her revered apples.
different aspects of lore, rarely
has been variously translated
Crazed by the pain shooting
overlapping or contradicting
as meaning “ever young”,
through his arms, Loki agrees to
each other. Together these
“rejuvenator”, or “the rejuvenating
the truce. Back in Asgard, Loki
collections paint a nearly complete
one”. Possessing great faith and
lures Iðunn away by telling her of
picture of Norse mythology.
care, the other gods depend upon
some apples that would be worth
her: they are not immortal.
keeping. He requests that she
In both eddas, one goddess in
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