5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The gods of Asgard were worshipped by the Norse peoples of Scandinavia and by the Germanic tribes, especially during the Viking Age. Warriors sought to die in battle to reach Odin's Valhalla, and the myths were preserved in the Icelandic Eddas. The cult declined with the region's Christianization around the year 1000.
The Norse celebrated blóts, seasonal sacrifices with feasts of meat and mead, such as the Yule of the winter solstice. The great temple at Uppsala, in Sweden, hosted every nine years one of the largest sacrificial festivals of the Viking world.
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At a glance
Iðunn (commonly anglicized as Idun or Iduna) is the Old Norse Aesir goddess who embodies the perennial vitality, physical vigor, and biological immortality of the divine community in Asgard. In chapter 26 of Gylfaginning, within Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, she is introduced as the devoted wife of the skaldic deity Bragi and sole custodian of the magical apples (epli), safeguarded in her ash-wood casket (eski): whenever the gods begin to experience physical aging and decrepitude, they partake of these miraculous fruits to instantly regain their pristine youthful strength, a cosmic ordinance destined to endure until the dawn of Ragnarök. Her central narrative crisis, preserved both in Skáldskaparmál and in the ancient skaldic shield poem Haustlöng by Þjóðólfr ór Hvini (composed around 900 CE), recounts her abduction by the giant Þjazi in eagle guise, following an extortion scheme engineered by Loki. In the absence of Iðunn's youth-preserving apples at the mountain stronghold of Þrymheimr, the Aesir experienced rapid physical decline, turning grey, withered, and aged until they coerced Loki to stage her rescue. Donning Freyja's falcon cloak, Loki flew to Jotunheim, transformed Iðunn into a nut, and carried her in his claws back across Asgard's walls, where the gods lit wood shavings along the battlements to ignite the wings of the pursuing giant and slay him. In the eddic poem Lokasenna, Iðunn intervenes to soothe tempers between Bragi and Loki, only to be taunted by Loki with the mysterious accusation of having embraced the slayer of her own brother—an intriguing mythic allusion whose complete narrative has not survived in extant textual sources. The sacred association of apples with regeneration in early Scandinavian culture is corroborated materially by the Oseberg ship burial (c. 834 CE), where wooden buckets containing intact wild apples were interred alongside buried noblewomen, affirming enduring funerary concepts of post-mortem renewal.
Genealogy according to Edda em Prosa (Gylfaginning 26, Skáldskaparmál 1, 2, 22, 32); Edda Poética (Lokasenna 16–18); Haustlöng de Þjóðólfr ór Hvini (c. 900 d.C.); Achado arqueológico do barco de Oseberg (c. 834 d.C.); John Lindow (2001); Rudolf Simek (1993); Margaret Clunies Ross (1994); H. R. Ellis Davidson (1964)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (ch. 26) and Skáldskaparmál (chs. 1–2, 22, 32). translation: English translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916), digitized at Sacred Texts. read
Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (Þjóðólfr ór Hvini), Haustlöng: Tenth-Century Skaldic Shield Poem on the Abduction of Iðunn. translation: Critical skaldic stanzas and commentary documented on Wikipedia. read
Anonymous Icelandic Poets, The Poetic Edda: Lokasenna (stanzas 16–18). translation: English translation with explanatory notes by Henry Adams Bellows (1936), Sacred Texts. read
Archaeological Curators at University of Oslo, The Oseberg Ship Burial Grave Goods (Grave Assemblage with Wooden Apple Bucket). translation: Archaeological and historical excavation record documented on Wikipedia. read
Studies
Lindow, John, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (Entry on Iðunn). Oxford University Press, 2001. open
Simek, Rudolf, Dictionary of Northern Mythology (Entries on Iðunn, Epli, and Þjazi). D.S. Brewer, 1993.
Clunies Ross, Margaret, Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society (Vol. 1: The Myths). Odense University Press, 1994. open
Davidson, H. R. Ellis, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (Chapters on Fertility Goddesses and Sacred Apples). Penguin Books, 1964. open
Turville-Petre, E. O. G., Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964. open
Name and epithets
The Old Norse theonym Iðunn is formed from the prefix ið- (connoting 'again', 'anew', 'perpetual renewal', cognate with Latin iterum) and a verbal root associated with love or vital care, interpreted in Germanic philolo…
In the ancient sources
The Prose Edda (Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál), C. 1220 CE. Primary narrative repository documenting the function of the apples, the abduction by Þjazi, and the subsequent aerial pursuit and rescue.
The myths
The Abduction by Þjazi and the Restoration of the Deities. In Skáldskaparmál, following early verses from Haustlöng, Loki is ensnared by the giant Þjazi in eagle guise while cooking an ox during a terrestrial journey wi…
Worship and archaeology
There is no archaeological evidence of monumental stone temples, dedicated sanctuaries, or place-names confirming a formal public priesthood dedicated to Iðunn in pre-Christian Scandinavia.
How the god was depicted
Textual and visual sources identify Iðunn primarily through her functional attributes: the eski (a bentwood ash casket) and the golden apples of youth.
What scholars debate
. Scholars of comparative mythology such as Rudolf Simek, Gabriel Turville-Petre, and Margaret Clunies Ross have explored whether Iðunn's apples reflect native Germanic agricultural beliefs or foreign classical influenc…
After antiquity
Iðunn achieved widespread cultural prominence in nineteenth-century Scandinavian and European art, music, and literature.
Did you know?
The recovery of dozens of intact wild apples in an ash-wood bucket within the Oseberg burial provides concrete physical evidence linking apples to early Scandinavian funerary rituals.
Codex relic
Golden Apples. Golden apples that preserve the eternal youth and vigor of all the gods of Asgard.
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