“Is she not a Saxon?” sneered Gyda, the seid woman, speaking for the first time. “And are not the Saxons Christians? She hath been too busy with mass and priest to have heard of Iduna.” “Then shall she be enlightened,” cried Sigurd, while Egwina looked hastily away from the coal-black eyes of the seid woman. Their gaze filled her with a sort of nameless terror. Inviting she was not in aspect, as was Gunnehilde in the forest, and involuntarily the girl crossed herself. The woman’s eyes glittered as she saw the action, but she made no comment. “Iduna,” went on the skald, “lived in Asgard, the city of the Æsir. To her care was given the apples of youth, which gave strength again to the body, and color and light to face and eyes. She kept them in a casket and never were they renewed. When the Æsir had need of them, she drew forth from the case the apples which were small as peas until her hands touched them. Others took the place of those taken out, so that the casket was never empty. Always was it filled, and none knew whence they came. “But Thyassi Jötun looked with covetous eyes upon the apples of Iduna, and sought how to get them. Once Odin, together with Loki the evil one, and Hoenir, went from Asgard over the mountains to an uninhabited land, and it was not easy for them to get food to eat. When they came down into a valley they saw a herd of oxen, took one of them and prepared it for the fire. When they thought it was cooked they took it off, but it was not cooked. A second time, after waiting a little, they took it off, and it was not cooked. They considered what might be the cause of this. Then they heard a voice from the tree above them which said that he who sat there caused this. They looked up, and a large eagle sat there. The eagle said: “‘If thou wilt give me my fill of the ox, it shall be cooked.’ “They assented. The bird came slowly down from the tree, sat on the hearth, and at once ate up the four shoulder pieces of the ox. Loki got angry, took a large pole, and with all his strength struck the eagle. At the blow the eagle flew into the air. The pole adhered to its body, and the hands of Loki to one end of it. The eagle flew so that Loki’s feet touched the rocks, the stone heaps, and the trees. He thought his hands would be torn from his shoulders. “He shouted eagerly, asking the bird to spare him, but it answered that he would never get loose unless he promised to make Iduna leave Asgard with her apples. Loki promised this, got loose, and went home.