Iðunn’s Return: When the Gods Began to Grow Old

“But at the time agreed upon, Loke coaxed Idun out of Asgard into a forest, saying that he had found apples that she would think very nice, and he requested her to take with her her own apples in order to compare them. Then came the giant Thjasse in the guise of an eagle, seized Idun and flew away with her to his home in Thrymheim. The asas were ill at ease on account of the disappearance of Idun,—they became gray-haired and old.”

“Loke turned her into the likeness of a nut, held her in his claws and flew with all his might.”

In Skáldskaparmál, as Anderson translates it, Odin, Loki and Hœnir cannot get an ox to cook, and an eagle in the oak above says he is the cause. Loki strikes him with a pole and is carried off, dragged over stones and trees, until he promises to bring Iðunn and her apples out of Ásgarðr. Loki lures her into a forest with talk of apples. The giant Þjazi, in eagle shape, seizes her and flies to his home in Þrymheimr.

Without her the gods grow grey and old. The council learns that Loki was the last with her, and he is threatened until he agrees to fetch her if Freyja lends him her falcon plumage. He flies to Jötunheimr while Þjazi is out at sea, turns Iðunn into a nut and carries her off. Þjazi follows as an eagle. The gods set a fire in the shavings piled by Ásgarðr’s wall, and the eagle’s feathers catch alight, so that he is killed inside the gates. Skaði’s claim for her father’s death is told in the entry on Njörðr and Skaði.

Iðunn is Bragi’s wife in Snorri’s account, and she keeps the apples that the gods eat when they grow old, to become young again. In Skáldskaparmál she is also called the booty of the giant Þjazi, and the apples are named a medicine against old age.

The story is told in prose, but Snorri also cites the poem Haustlöng by Þjóðólfr of Hvin, which describes it as pictured on a shield. In Anderson’s translation the poem mentions the gods’ journey, Iðunn being brought to the giant’s home, the gods growing old and grey, and Thor’s threat to Loki. The texts give no location for the forest where Iðunn was taken. Þjazi’s home, Þrymheimr, has its own entry.