CHAPTER XV
THE DEATH OF BALDER
There was one shadow which always fell over Asgard. Sometimes in the
long years the gods almost forgot it, it lay so far off, like a dim
cloud in a clear sky; but Odin saw it deepen and widen as he looked out
into the universe, and he knew that the last great battle would surely
come, when the gods themselves would be destroyed and a long twilight
would rest on all the worlds; and now the day was close at hand.
Misfortunes never come singly to men, and they did not to the gods.
Idun, the beautiful goddess of youth, whose apples were the joy of all
Asgard, made a resting place for herself among the massive branches of
Yggdrasil, and there every evening came Brage, and sang so sweetly that
the birds stopped to listen, and even the Norns, those implacable
sisters at the foot of the tree, were softened by the melody. But poetry
cannot change the purposes of fate, and one evening no song was heard of
Brage or birds, the leaves of the world tree hung withered and lifeless
on the branches, and the fountain from which they had daily been
sprinkled was dry at last. Idun had fallen into the dark valley of
death, and when Brage, Heimdal, and Loki went to question her about the
future she could answer them only with tears. Brage would not leave his
beautiful wife alone amid the dim shades that crowded the dreary
valley, and so youth and genius vanished out of Asgard forever.
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