"How is it that some of you are old, if the radiation keeps you all from aging?" I asked.
"They were old when the catastrophe first kindled the radiation below. Since then, none of them has grown older. The few children born here grow normally till they reach maturity, and then do not age further."
"You've all lived here in Asgard for centuries on centuries," I muttered. "It seems repulsive."
"Not all of us, Jarl Keith," said Freya. "I am not centuries old!"
She smiled when I looked at her doubtfully.
"Your name was known and worshiped in the outer world centuries ago, Freya."
"My mother's mother was named Freya also," she explained. "She was sister to Frey, who sits beside you. She and her husband Odur were among the party of Aesir Odin mentioned, who perished in a mission beyond Niffleheim. But Freya left two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Gersemi was my own mother. She perished from drowning twenty years ago, soon after I was born."
"Then you're really only twenty years old?" I exclaimed. "I'm glad of that!"
"Why should you be glad, Jarl Keith?" she asked quite innocently.
I was spared a reply by an interruption to the feast. Tall Heimdall stood up and called: