The Younger Edda (tr. Anderson)/Extracts from the Poetical Diction/Idun
IDUN.
How shall Idun be named? She is called the wife of Brage, the keeper of the apples; but the apples are called the medicine to bar old age (ellilyf, elixir vitæ). She is also called the booty of the giant Thjasse, according to what has before been said concerning how he took her away from the asas. From this saga Thjodolf, of Hvin, composed the following song in his Haustlong:
How shall the tongue
Pay an ample reward
For the sonorous shield
Which I received from Thorleif,
Foremost 'mong soldiers?
On the splendidly made shield
I see the unsafe journey
Of three gods and Thjasse.
Idun 's robber flew long ago
The asas to meet
In the giant's old eagle-guise.
The eagle perched
Where the asas bore
Their food to be cooked.
Ye women! The mountain-giant
Was not wont to be timid.
Suspected of malice
Was the giant toward the gods.
Who causes this?
Said the chief of the gods.
The wise-worded giant-eagle
From the old tree began to speak.
The friend of Honer
Was not friendly to him.
The mountain-wolf from Honer
Asked for his fill
From the holy table:
It fell to Honer to blow the fire.
The giant, eager to kill,
Glided down
Where the unsuspecting gods,
Odin, Loke and Honer, were sitting.
The fair lord of the earth
Bade Farbaute's son
Quickly to share
The ox with the giant;
But the cunning foe of the asas
Thereupon laid
The four parts of the ox
Upon the broad table.
And the huge father of Morn[1]
Afterward greedily ate
The ox at the tree-root.
That was long ago,
Until the profound
Loke the hard rod laid
'Twixt the shoulders
Of the giant Thjasse.
Then clung with his hands
The husband of Sigyn
To Skade's foster-son,
In the presence of all the gods.
The pole stuck fast
To Jotunheim 's strong fascinator,
But the hands of Honer's dear friend
Stuck to the other end.
Flew then with the wise god
The voracious bird of prey
Far away; so the wolf's father
To pieces must be torn.
Odin's friend got exhausted.
Heavy grew Lopt.
Odin's companion
Must sue for peace.
Hymer's kinsman demanded
That the leader of hosts
The sorrow-healing maid,
Who the asas' youth -preserving apples keeps,
Should bring to him.
Brisingamen's thief
Afterward brought Idun
To the gard of the giant.
Sorry were not the giants
After this had taken place.
Since from the south
Idun had come to the giants.
All the race
Of Yngve-Frey, at the Thing,
Grew old and gray, —
Ugly-looking were the gods.
Until the gods found the blood-dog,
Idun's decoying thrall.
And bound the maid's deceiver,
You shall, cunning Loke,
Spake Thor, die;
Unless back you lead.
With your tricks, that
Good joy-increasing maid.
Heard have I that thereupon
The friend of Honer flew
In the guise of a falcon
(He often deceived the asas with his cunning);
And the strong fraudulent giant.
The father of Morn,
With the wings of the eagle
Sped after the hawk's child.
The holy gods soon built a fire —
They shaved off kindlings —
And the giant was scorched.
This is said in memory
Of the dwarf's heel-bridge.[2]
A shield adorned with splendid lines
From Thorleif I received.