“We fly from day’s dazzling light,
But we joy in the shades of night,—
Though we journey on earth, our home must be
Beneath the shell of the earth and the sea.”
Mathisen.
[38] This legend is taken from the Brage Rädur, which, in the original, is obscure enough. Finn Magnussen, however, seems to have hit upon the right interpretation of it, which we have followed here. His explanation, as given in “Blackwell’s Northern Antiquities,” is this:—“Iduna, the ever-renovating Spring-being, in the possession of Thjasse, the desolating Winter,—all nature languishes until she is delivered from her captivity. On this being effected, her presence again diffuses joy and gladness, and all things revive; while her pursuer, Winter, with his icy breath, dissolves in the solar rays, indicated by the fires lighted on the walls of Asgard.”
[39] Niord and his wife, Skadi, had naturally some disputes about their future residence,—he preferring the brightness of his own palace, Noatun, she very naturally yearning after Thrymheim, the abode of her chilly father. The dispute was referred to Forseti, the son of Baldur, the heavenly attorney-general, who decided that they should alternately occupy Noatun for three months and Thrymheim for nine,—which is about the Norwegian proportion of summer and winter.
“Thrymheim, the land
Where Thjasse abode,