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Updated: June 26, 2025
The next day the Asas went out, as usual, to engage in pleasant pastimes on the plains of Ida. When they had tired of leaping and foot-racing and tilting, they placed Balder before them as a target again; and, as each threw his weapon toward the shining mark, they laughed to see the missile turn aside from its course, and refuse to strike the honored one.
Whenever the Asas felt old age coming on, they went to her, and she gave them of her fruit; and, when they had tasted, they grew young and strong and handsome again. Once, however, they came near losing the apples, or losing rather Idun and her golden key, without which no one could ever open the box.
Then the Asas asked Hreidmar, their jailer, what ransom they should pay for their freedom; and he, not knowing who they were, said, "I must first know what ransom you are able to give." "We will give any thing you may ask," hastily answered Loki. Hreidmar then called his sons, and bade them strip the skin from the otter's body.
But she was glad to know that the precious box was safely locked at home, and that the golden key was still at her girdle. Time passed; and I fear that Idun would have been forgotten by all, save her husband Bragi, had not the Asas begun to feel the need of her apples.
"And, to show you that I mean just what I say, I will wager against your head all the diamonds in the ceiling above us, that he will make not only as good treasures, but those which the Asas will esteem much higher." "Agreed!" cried Loki, "agreed! I take the wager. Let your brother try his skill at once." The three went straightway to Sindre's forge, and the brothers began their task.
At last he gave to Thor the hammer Mjolner, and said that it, like Odin's spear, would never miss the mark, and that whatever it struck, it would crush in pieces, and whithersoever it might be hurled, it would come back to his hand again. Then the Asas declared at once that Thor's hammer was the best of all the gifts, and that the dwarf had fairly won the wager.
Then he called loudly for help: and his two sons, Fafnir and Regin, sturdy and valiant kin of the dwarf-folk, rushed in, and seized upon the huntsmen, and bound them hand and foot; for the three Asas, having taken upon themselves the forms of men, had no more than human strength, and were unable to withstand them. Then Odin and his fellows bemoaned their ill fate.
When the Asas had obtained this chain, they lured the Fenris-wolf to the rocky Island of Lyngve, and by flattery persuaded him to be bound again. But this he would not agree to do until Tyr placed his hand in his mouth as a pledge of good faith. Then they tied him as before, and laughingly bade him break the silken cord.
Followed by long trains of captives, long trains of waggons bearing the spoils of all the world, Alaric went on South, 'with the native instinct of the barbarian, as Dr. Sheppard well says. Always toward the sun. Away from Muspelheim and the dark cold north, toward the sun, and Valhalla, where Odin and the Asas dwell in everlasting light.
Athanaric, 'judge, or alderman of the Thervings, had sent through the camp so runs the story the waggon which bore the idol of Woden, and had burnt, with their tents and their families, those who refused to worship. They, like all other German tribes, were ruled over by two royal races, sons of Woden and the Asas.
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