LOVELORNNESS
AFTER THE MANNER OF THE EDDA
Baldur was once obliged to go away out of Asgard and leave Nanna all alone. So Nanna was very sad. She knew that no one would hurt her Baldur, but still it was to her as though he had been swallowed up by the mists of Niflheim, and as though she would never see him again. So she went to the Norns who dwell by the tree Ygdrasil, and she said:—
Nanna: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the body do, when the soul has left it?”
Norn: “The body when the soul has left it can do nothing; it is lifeless and inert, and turns to dust.”
Nanna: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the thoughts do, when the master-brain has left them?”
Norn: “The thoughts fly hither and thither when the master-brain has left them. They seek their director, and finding him not, fall fluttering to the ground lifeless and useless, or lose their way along paths that have no ending.”