The Apples on Which the Gods Stay Young

Idun is the goddess who keeps the golden apples that the Aesir eat to renew their youth, and she is the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry. Her importance is shown most vividly by what happens when she is lost. In the tale, the giant Thjazi, with Loki's forced help, lures Idun out of Asgard and carries her off, apples and all.

Deprived of her fruit, the gods at once begin to grow old and grey and withered, and it is this ageing that forces them to compel Loki to win her back, which he does by borrowing Freyja's falcon-feather cloak, flying to the giant's home, and bringing Idun back in the form of a nut clutched in his talons, with Thjazi in pursuit until the gods burn him with kindled shavings at the wall of Asgard. The story makes a simple, powerful point about the Norse gods: they are not inherently immortal but depend on Idun's keeping. Without her apples even the Aesir would age and die, so that the youth of the gods rests in the hands of one quiet goddess.