Birch Grove

Idun is the keeper of the golden apples of immortality, the food of the Gods that keeps them young. She keeps them in a box made of ash wood. Other than that, not much else is known about her. She is the wife of Bragi, the skald/poet God, but unlike most of the wives in Norse mythology, she is mentioned more often than her husband. She may or may not have an orchard in her home-place, Brunnaker. She may or may not have a connection to the Norns. Some say that she and Saga are the same Goddess. I don’t agree with them.

To me, Idun has long, honey-gold hair that she binds back. She might store the ripe apples in a wooden box, but I’m certain she tends her orchard with skill. To me, she seems to be a wise, wry, older cousin, but she has often been portrayed as the embodiment of youth and spring. Her role was (or is) perhaps more important than we can ever know, for when she was stolen by the giant Thiazzi (Skadi’s father), the Gods were without their golden apples and grew old and weak.

Her unknown relationship with the Norns (who parallel the Greek Fates) also gives her power, for the Norns bind even the Gods to their wyrdr or fates. Her orchard might even be watered with the life-giving waters of Urd’s Well at the base of the root of Yggdrasil.

She has been listed as the patron of life, youth, fertility, and death, and can be invoked to bless with longevity in life.

For more on my impression of Idun, read, “Idun in an eden” under Poetry.