Note 38 — Chapter XVI · THE COASTING VOYAGE.

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.”