le screamed out to him,
"Thou art in my power at last, O thou most cunning of all the Dwellers
in Asgard." The eagle left Loki there and flew within a crack in the
mountain.

Miserable indeed was Loki upon that iceberg. The cold was deadly. He
could not die there, for he was one of the Dwellers in Asgard and death
might not come to him that way. He might not die, but he felt bound to
that iceberg with chains of cold.

After a day his captor came to him, not as an eagle this time, but in
his own form, Thiassi the Giant.

"Wouldst thou leave thine iceberg, Loki," he said, "and return to thy
pleasant place in Asgard? Thou dost delight in Asgard, although only by
one-half dost thou belong to the Gods. Thy father, Loki, was the Wind
Giant."

"O that I might leave this iceberg," Loki said, with the tears freezing
on his face.

"Thou mayst leave it when thou showest thyself ready to pay thy ransom
to me," said Thiassi. "Thou wilt have to get me the shining apples that
Iduna keeps in her basket."

"I cannot get Iduna's apples for thee, Thiassi," said Loki.

"Then stay upon the iceberg," said Thiassi the Giant. He went away and
left Loki there with the terrible winds buffeting him as with blows of a
hammer.

When Thiassi came again and spoke to him about his ransom, Loki said,
"There is no way of getting the shining apples from Iduna."

"There must be some way, O cunning Loki," said the Giant.

"Iduna, although she guards well the shining apples, is simple-minded,"
said Loki. "It may be that I shall be able to get her to go outside the
wall of Asgard. If she goes she will bring her shining apples with her,
for she never lets them go out of her hand except when she gives them to
the Gods and Goddesses to eat."

"Make it so that she will go beyond the wall of Asgard," said the Giant.
"If she goes outside of the wall I shall get the apples from her. Swear
by the World-Tree that thou wilt lure Iduna beyond the wall of Asgard.
Swear it, Loki, and I shall let thee go."

"I swear it by Ygdrassil, the World-Tree, that I will lure Iduna beyond
the wall of Asgard if thou wilt take me off this iceberg," said Loki.

Then Thiassi changed himself into a mighty eagle, and taking Loki in his
talons, he flew with him over the stream that divides Joetunheim, the
Realm of the Giants, from Midgard, the World of Men. He left Loki on the
ground of Midgard, and Loki then went on his way to Asgard.

Now Odin had already returned and h