e had told the Dwellers in Asgard of
Loki's attempt to cook the enchanted meat. All laughed to think that
Loki had been left hungry for all his cunning. Then when he came into
Asgard looking so famished, they thought it was because Loki had had
nothing to eat. They laughed at him more and more. But they brought him
into the Feast Hall and they gave him the best of food with wine out of
Odin's wine cup. When the feast was over the Dwellers in Asgard went to
Iduna's garden as was their wont.

There sat Iduna in the golden house that opened on her garden. Had she
been in the world of men, every one who saw her would have remembered
their own innocence, seeing one who was so fair and good. She had eyes
blue as the blue sky, and she smiled as if she were remembering lovely
things she had seen or heard. The basket of shining apples was beside
her.

To each God and Goddess Iduna gave a shining apple. Each one ate the
apple given, rejoicing to think that they would never become a day
older. Then Odin, the Father of the Gods, said the runes that were
always said in praise of Iduna, and the Dwellers in Asgard went out of
Iduna's garden, each one going to his or her own shining house.

All went except Loki, the doer of good and the doer of evil. Loki sat in
the garden, watching fair and simple Iduna. After a while she spoke to
him and said, "Why dost thou still stay here, wise Loki?"

"To look well on thine apples," Loki said. "I am wondering if the apples
I saw yesterday are really as shining as the apples that are in thy
basket."

"There are no apples in the world as shining as mine," said Iduna.

"The apples I saw were more shining," said Loki. "Aye, and they smelled
better, Iduna."

Iduna was troubled at what Loki, whom she deemed so wise, told her. Her
eyes filled with tears that there might be more shining apples in the
world than hers. "O Loki," she said, "it cannot be. No apples are more
shining, and none smell so sweet, as the apples I pluck off the tree in
my garden."

"Go, then, and see," said Loki. "Just outside Asgard is the tree that
has the apples I saw. Thou, Iduna, dost never leave thy garden, and so
thou dost not know what grows in the world. Go outside of Asgard and
see."

"I will go, Loki," said Iduna, the fair and simple.

Iduna went outside the wall of Asgard. She went to the place Loki had
told her that the apples grew in. But as she looked this way and that
way, Iduna heard a whirr of wings abo