Saturday 13 July 2013

Who Is Iduna?

The Keeper of Eternal Youth
The Norse Goddess, Iduna

The story of Iduna, the Norse goddess begins like this:
  
In Asgard there was a garden, and in that garden there grew a tree, and on that tree there grew shining apples. Thou knowst, O well-loved one, that every day that passes makes us older and brings us to that day when we will be bent and feeble, gray-headed and weak-eyed. But those shining apples that grew in Asgard--they who ate of them every day grew never a day older, for the eating of the apples kept old age away.

Iduna's job was to tend the golden apples and each day to pluck them and place them in her basket so the Gods and Goddesses could eat them and stay forever young.  Iduna is always portrayed as strong, radiant and youthful with rippling golden hair and eyes that were blue as the blue sky!  There's even a shrine to her that you can check out at this link:

And a legend about how Iduna was almost burned to a crisp when Loki tried to steal the golden apples.

Good reading!!

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