Norse gods

Chapter 13 The Golden Apple of Youth
1
This time, our story still has three protagonists who explore the mountains on the edge of Jotunheim.This time, our three protagonists are Thor, Loki and Heinir. (Hainir is an old god. He gave reason to humans.)
Food is hard to come by in these steep mountains.The three gods became more and more hungry.

At this moment, they heard a cow call—the call from a herd of cattle in the distance—the three of them looked at each other and laughed, for the dinner that was about to enter.They came into a green valley where life was luxuriant, where great oaks and soaring pines fringed meadows and streams.There they saw a herd of cattle on the prairie, each head was huge and fat.

They dug a pit and built a fire with logs in the pit.Then they killed an ox and buried it with red-hot coals.They sat quietly waiting for the food to be cooked.

After a while, they dug the pit, but the meat inside was still raw and bloodshot.

They tried again and lit the fire again.Wait again.This time, the meat in the pit was even cold, not heated at all.

"Did you hear anything?" Thor asked.

"What?" Heinir asked him, "I didn't hear anything."

"I hear you," said Loki, "listen carefully."

They listened breathlessly, and this time, they heard the voice clearly.Someone was making fun of them loudly, and the laughter was hearty and cheerful.

The three gods looked around, but found no one else in the valley except themselves and the herd of cattle.

Then Loki glanced up.

On the highest branch of the tallest tree sat an eagle.It was the biggest eagle they had ever seen, a giant among eagles.It watched them laughing.

"Do you know why we don't cook dinner over a raw fire?" Thor asked.

"I guess I know," replied the eagle, "Why, you look very hungry. Why don't you eat it raw? Eagles eat raw meat. We tear it up with our strong beaks. But you don't have beaks, do you?" ?”

"We're really hungry," Heinier said, "Can you bake us dinner?"

"I suppose," said the Eagle, "that your fire is bewitched with some kind of magic, which sucks all the heat and energy out of it. If you promise to give me some of the cooked supper, then I will rekindle your fires."

"We promise," said Loki, "that once the meat is roasted and we've all had something to eat, you can take your share."

The giant eagle took off and soared over the grassland. Its wings fanned the hurricane, and the charcoal in the fire was lit up in the flames.The three gods had to support each other in order not to be blown away by the hurricane.At this time, the giant eagle slowly returned to the top of the tree.

This time, they confidently buried the meat in the fire pit and waited a while.It was summer, and in the Northland the sun hardly ever set.So when they dug the pit again, although it was late, it still felt like daytime.As soon as the pit was dug, the tender and juicy cooked beef came out, and the three gods couldn't wait.

As soon as the hole was dug, the giant eagle also jumped down, grabbed the cow's two hind legs and one side of the shoulder and neck with its claws, and began to tear greedily with its beak.Loki was out of breath, and seeing his supper gobbled up, he stabbed the eagle hard with his spear, wanting it to throw away its plundered food.

The giant eagle flapped its wings fiercely, and the airflow generated almost caused the three gods to stumble, but in this way, it also lost a piece of meat.Loki, however, had no time to enjoy his victory, for he found that the spear with which he stabbed the eagle had become lodged in the giant eagle, so that as soon as the eagle flew up, he was carried up into the sky.

Loki wanted to let go of the spear in his hand, but his hands were stuck on the handle.He couldn't let go.

The eagle flew low, and Loki's feet were dragged, dragged across rocks and rubble, foothills and woods.Obviously, there was some spell in it, and it was more powerful than Loki's spell, and he couldn't do anything about it.

"Please!" he yelled, "Stop! You're dislocating my hand. My boots are ruined. You're killing me!"

The eagle flew up, and it circled the side of the mountain, and in the air, there was only far land under their feet. "Maybe I just want to kill you," it said.

"Whatever you want, just put me down," Rocky gasped, "You can say anything, just tell me what you want."

The eagle said, "I want Eden, and her apples. The golden apples of youth."

Loki was suspended in the air at this moment.There is nothing but the wind under his feet, and the earth is thousands of miles away.

Iden is the wife of Blaki, the God of Poverty. She is gentle and sweet, with a kind heart.She often carried with her an ash box containing golden apples.When the gods felt that old age was beginning to affect them, when their temples were turning gray or their joints were starting to ache, they went to Eden.She would open her box and allow the visiting god or goddess to take an apple from the box and eat it.They ate the apple, and their youth and strength would return to their bodies.The gods would cease to be gods without the apple of Iden...

"You haven't answered me yet, have you?" said the eagle, "how about I drag you over some rocks and mountains and whatnot? This time we can also try deep rivers."

"I'll get the apple for you," said Loki, "I swear. If you just let me down."

The giant eagle did not speak, it turned its wings and began to descend.On the green grassland below, a wisp of cooking smoke slowly rises.Thor and Heinir were standing below looking at them with their mouths wide open, and the giant eagle swooped down towards them.The instant the eagle flew over the fire, Loki realized he was falling.He was still clutching his spear as he fell onto the steppe.

The giant eagle flew up again with a long howl, and after a while it turned into a small black spot in the sky again.

"What the hell is going on here?" Thor said.

"Who knows?" Loki replied.

"We left you something to eat," said Heinier.

But Loki had lost his appetite, and his friends thought it was probably due to his dangerous battles in the air.

On their way home, everything was normal, and nothing strange was seen or heard.

2
The next day Iden wandered around Asgard, saying hello to the gods and examining their faces for signs of aging.She meets Loki.Loki would normally ignore her, but this morning he greeted her with a smile.

"Eden! Nice to see you! I think I'm getting old," he said to her. "I need your apples."

"You don't look any older at all," she said.

"That's what I hid," said Loki. "Oh! My back hurts. It's a terrible thing to grow old, Eden."

Eden opened her ash box, took out a golden apple and handed it to Loki.

He ate the apple excitedly, swallowing it whole with the core.

Then he frowned and looked sad.

"My God," he said, "I thought you had, uh, better apples."

"That's really unheard of," Eden replied.Her apples had never been so coldly received.The gods generally raved about her apples, marveling at their renewed youth. "Loki, these are the apples of the gods. The golden apples of youth."

Loki looked dubious. "Perhaps," he said, "but I've seen apples in the woods that were in every way better than yours. They looked better, smelled better, and tasted sweeter. The golden apples of youth. Maybe those are better than your 'youth'."

He watched Eden's face change several times - disbelief, confusion and concern.

"My apple is unique," she said.

Loki shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I saw," he said.

Eden followed him. "Where did you find these apples?" she asked.

"Over there. I don't know how to get there, but maybe I can take you there. It's not very far."

She nodded.

"But when we see these apple trees, how will they compare? Your wooden box of apples is far away in Asgard. You think, I might say 'these apples are better than yours', and you Well, say 'Impossible, Rocky, these are crumpled, rotten apples compared to my apples'. How will we tell the good from the bad?"

"Don't be silly," Eden said, "I'll bring my apple. We'll compare on the spot."

"Oh," said Loki, "that's a good idea. All right, then let's go."

They walked into the forest together, Eden holding tightly to her ash box with the apples of eternal life.

After they had walked for half an hour, Eden said, "Rocky, I'm beginning to wonder if there really are any apples and apple trees you speak of."

"It's not good for you to say that, it hurts," said Loki. "The apple tree is on the top of the hill."

They went to the top of the mountain. "Where's an apple tree here?" asked Eden. "Only that tall pine tree with an eagle on it."

"Is that an eagle?" asked Loki. "It's huge."

As if hearing their conversation, the eagle spread its wings and flew down the pine tree.

"I'm not an eagle," the eagle opened its mouth. "I'm Sharkey the giant in the form of an eagle. I'm here to take beautiful Eden. You will accompany my daughter Skadi. Maybe you will start to like me too." .However, time is running out for the gods of Asgard, and their youth is running out. I prophesy! Sharkey so prophesies!"

It held Eden in one paw and the ash box containing the apples in the other, and flew into the sky.After a while, they disappeared above Asgard.

"It turned out to be him," Loki said to himself silently, "I knew he was not an ordinary eagle." He thought so and returned home.He secretly hoped that no one would notice that Eden and her apple disappeared, and if anyone did, he hoped that it would be a long time away, long enough that no one would put Eden's disappearance and Loki taking her into the forest. connect things.

3
"You were the last to see her," said Thor, rubbing the knuckles of his right hand.

"What? How could it be me?" said Loki. "Why do you think so?"

"Because you're the only one of us who hasn't grown old," said Thor.

"I'm very old, but I'm luckier," said Loki, "I'm well kept."

Thor made a grunt in his throat, he didn't believe Loki's words at all.His red beard was now a frosty white with hints of orange, the hue of a once-flaming fire cooling to a mass of ashes.

"Keep hitting him," Freya yelled.Her long hair was already white, and her face was wrinkled.She was still beautiful, but it was the beauty of an old and kindly woman, not that of a fair-haired girl. "He knows where Eden is. He knows where the Apple is." Her necklace, the Brinsings, still hung around her neck, but it was now dull and dirty and no longer shiny.

Odin, father of the gods, gripped his staff with bony, rheumatic fingers.His voice, loud and authoritative, sounded weak and hoarse now. "Don't hit him, Thor," he said in an old voice.

"See? I knew, at least you'd know right from wrong, All-Father," said Loki, "I had nothing to do with it! Why did Eden come with me? She doesn't even like me !"

"Don't hit him," Odin repeated, glancing at Loki with his good, sunken gray eye, "I hope he'll be tortured later, unscathed. They're preparing for that: Light a fire to sharpen a knife, collect stones. We are old, but torturing a man is no problem. We are good at torturing and killing. This is the same as when we are in our prime, and there are Eden's apples to keep our youth forever. Same as ever, undiminished."

Loki smelled burning charcoal.

"If..." he said, "if I could somehow figure out what happened to Eden, if I could manage to bring her and her apple back to Asgard safely, could we, uh, forget about the torture , killing or something?"

"If you want to live, this is your only chance." Odin said.His voice was so hoarse that Loki could hardly tell whether it was the voice of an old man or an old woman. "Bring Iden back to Asgard. And the golden apple of youth."

Loki nodded. "Loose the chains," he said. "I'll do it, but I need Freya's feathered cloak."

"My cloak?" Freya asked.

"Yes."

Freya walked away stiffly, holding a cloak studded with falcon feathers.Loki's shackles were undone, and he reached for the cloak.

"Don't think you can just fly away like that," Thor said, stroking his white beard thoughtfully. "I'm old," he said, "but if you don't come back, I'll find you even when I'm old, and I and my hammer will kill you wherever you hide. For I still It's Thor! I'm still strong!"

"I see you are still annoying," Loki said. "Save your energy, you can use your divine power to make a pile of wood shavings outside the walls of Asgard. A huge pile of wood Wood shavings. You need to cut down countless trees and plan them into a huge pile of shavings. I need a long and tall pile of shavings to go around the wall, so you should start now."

Loki put on a feather cloak, turned into a falcon, and flapped his wings to fly.He flew faster than a real eagle, and disappeared in an instant, heading for the frost giant's habitat in the north.

4
Loki's falcon flew and flew until he reached the domain of the Frost Giants, the castle of Sharkey the Giant.He stopped on a high roof and observed the movement below.

He watched Sharkey come out of his house in the form of a giant, and he walked down the cobbled path by the water's edge to a ship bigger than the biggest whale.Sharkey hauled the boat into the frigid waters of the ocean to the north, and began to row vigorously.After a while, his figure disappeared.

Loki flew around the house in falcon form, watching every window.In the farthest room, through the iron bars, he saw Eden.She sat there crying.He stopped on the fence.

"Don't cry!" he said. "It's me, Loki, and I've come to save you!"

Eden gave him a look with eyes red from crying. "It's you, you are the beginning of all my pain." She said.

"Well, maybe. But that was a long time ago. That was the Loki of yesterday. The Loki of today is here to rescue you and bring you home."

"How are you going to save me?" she asked.

"Is the apple with you?"

"I am the goddess of the Aesir," she said, "wherever I am, there are apples." She showed him the apple box.

"It's easy to fix," said Loki, "with your eyes closed."

She closed her eyes, and Loki transformed her into a chestnut in its shell with a blue rind.Loki grabbed the fruit with his claws, jumped out of the iron bars of the window, and started flying home.

Sharkey's fishing trip wasn't smooth sailing.Fish don't bite the hook.He felt that it would be better to go home and find Eden than to waste time here.He thought he would tease her well, and tell her that without her and her golden apples, the gods were senile—drooling, trembling hands and feet, unsteady on their feet, and weakened in mind and body.Thinking of this, he rowed back to the castle and strode towards Eden's room.

The room was empty.

Sharkey finds a falcon feather on the ground.He knew immediately where Eden was and who had taken her.

He turned into a giant eagle and flew into the sky. This time the giant eagle was extremely huge, bigger than the biggest eagle he had ever seen.He flapped his wings in the direction of Asgard.

Below his feet, the earth receded rapidly.The wind whistled in my ears.He flew faster, the sound of breaking wind roared in his ears.

Sharkey flew out of the kingdom of giants and into the realm of the gods.When he saw a falcon in the distance, Sharkey uttered an angry howl and accelerated the speed of flapping his wings.

All the gods of Asgard heard the scream and the roar of wings breaking the wind, and they all went to the high wall to see what happened.From a distance, they saw a small falcon flying towards them, and a huge goshawk was chasing after them.The Falcon is almost here...

"Now?" Thor asked.

"Right now." Freya replied.

Thor lit the prepared wood shavings.At the moment when it was about to burn, the falcon flew in quickly, burrowed into the castle and stopped. At that moment, with a bang, the shavings turned into flames.Like a volcanic eruption, the flames shot up higher than the walls of Asgard in an instant: terrific, unimaginably hot.

At high speed, Sharkey in giant eagle form couldn't stop, and couldn't slow down or change direction immediately.He rushed into the flames.The giant's feathers burned, and his wings were singed.A featherless eagle plummeted from the sky.With a loud noise that shook the walls of the gods, he fell to the ground.

The giant eagle, which was dizzy from the burning, with its skin exposed and overly frightened, was no match for the gods, even if the gods were old and weak.Seriously wounded, Sharkey attempted to transform back into his giant form, but Thor's hammer ended his life just as soon as he did.

5
Eden is overjoyed to be reunited with her husband.The gods ate the apple again and regained their youth.Loki hoped this was the end of the matter.

However, things backfired.Sharkey's daughter Skadi put on her battle armor, raised her weapon, and came to Asgard to avenge her father.

"My father was everything to me," she said, "and you killed him. His death left me in tears and pain. I've lost all joy. I'm here to give blood for blood Avenge him, or at least some compensation."

The gods of Asa and Skadi negotiated for several rounds about the specific content of the compensation.At that time, every life had a price tag, and Sharkey's life price tag was very high.At the end of the negotiations, the gods and Skadi agreed on three payments on what compensation she would receive for her father's death.

First, she would get a husband to fill the place of her dead father. (All the gods could see that Skadi was very fond of Baldr, the most handsome and beautiful god. She kept winking at him until Baldr blushed and looked away in embarrassment.)
Number two, the gods must make her smile again.She hasn't smiled once since her father was killed.

Finally, the gods would somehow ensure that her father would be remembered forever.

The gods let her choose her own husband at will.But there is one thing, you can't see the groom's face when you choose.All male gods would stand behind a curtain.All she could see were their feet.In other words, Skadi can only choose her son-in-law by her feet.

They walked through the curtain one by one, and Skadi commented on the feet she saw. "Ugly feet." She commented like this when everyone walked by.

Until she stopped and cried out in surprise. "These feet belong to my future husband!" she said. "The most beautiful feet! They must belong to Balder—everything about Balder is beautiful, and there is nothing ugly about him."

Balder was indeed beautiful and handsome, but when Skadi lifted the curtain, she discovered that the feet she had chosen belonged to Njord.He is the God of Chaos, the father of Frey and Freya.

She married him.At the wedding feast, the sadness on her face was never seen by the gods of Asa.

Thor pushed Loki beside him. "Go ahead," he said, "make fun of her. It's all your fault after all."

Loki sighed. "Is that so?"

Thor nodded, and pointed to the handle of his hammer meaningfully.

Loki shook his head helplessly.He went out into the pen where the animals were kept.Back at the party, he leads a huge, irascible bill goat.When Loki tied a rope to its beard, the goat became more irritable.

On the other end of the rope, Loki tied it to his crotch.

He tugged on the rope with his hand.The goat yelled in pain because its whiskers were torn, so it jerked backwards.The other end of the rope grabbed Loki's private parts violently.Loki screamed and tugged back on the rope again.

The gods all laughed.It wasn't hard to make the gods laugh, but it was the funniest thing they'd seen in a long time.They even made a wager on which would suffer first, the goat's beard or Loki's crotch.They made fun of the way Loki screamed. "Like a fox howling at night!" Badr laughed and exclaimed. "Loki sounds like a crying useless milk baby!" laughs Baldr's brother Hodder, who, despite being blind, laughs every time Loki screams.

Skadi didn't smile, although the shadow of a smile seemed to swirl around the corner of her mouth.Every time the goat neighed, or Loki cried like a wounded baby, the corners of her mouth rose a little more.

Loki pulled.The goat pulled.Loki screamed and pulled.The goat yelled and pulled harder.

The rope broke.

Loki flew up, clutching his crotch tightly, just landed in Skadi's arms, shivering with pain.

Skadi's laughter finally broke out uncontrollably, like an avalanche in the mountains.She laughed so hard it cracked like a glacier.She was laughing so hysterically that tears were shining in her eyes.Laughing, she reached out and squeezed the hand of her new husband, Niord, for the first time.

Loki climbed down from her arms and staggered away, covering his crotch with his hands, looking at the gods with a sad and angry expression, but they just laughed louder.

"In this way, we are settled." After the wedding banquet, Odin, the father of the gods, said to Skadi, the daughter of the giant, "There is still one thing missing."

He asked Skadi to follow him into the night sky.She walked outside the banquet hall with Odin, followed by her husband.Next to the embers of the giant's cremation, there are two glowing orbs.

"These two spheres," Odin said to Skadi, "are your father's eyes."

The All-Father picked up what had been eyes and flung them into the night sky.There they burned and glowed side by side.

During the winter solstice, if you look up at the starry sky, you will be able to see this shining double star.Those two stars were Sharkey's eyes, and they still shine in the night sky.

(End of this chapter)