Morning after morning the faded light broke on paler and ever paler faces, until even in heaven the eternal light of youth seemed to be going out forever.

Finally the gods could bear the loss of power and joy no longer.  They made rigorous inquiry.  They tracked Loki on that fair morning when he led Idun beyond the gates; they seized him and brought him into solemn council, and when he read in their haggard faces the deadly hate which flamed in all their hearts against his treachery, his courage failed, and he promised to bring Idun back to Asgard if the goddess Freyja would lend him her falcon guise.  No sooner said than done; and with eager gaze the gods watched him as he flew away, becoming at last only a dark moving speck against the sky.

After long and weary flight Loki came to Thrymheim, and was glad enough to find Thjasse gone to sea and Idun alone in his dreary house.  He changed her instantly into a nut, and taking her thus disguised in his talons, flew away as fast as his falcon wings could carry him.  And he had need of all his speed, for Thjasse, coming suddenly home and finding Idun and her precious fruit gone, guessed what had happened, and, putting on his eagle plumage, flew forth in a mighty rage, with vengeance in his heart.  Like the rushing wings of a tempest, his mighty pinions beat the air and bore him swiftly onward.  From mountain peak to mountain peak he measured his wide course, almost grazing at times the murmuring pine forests, and then sweeping high in mid-air with nothing above but the arching sky, and nothing beneath but the tossing sea.

At last he sees the falcon far ahead, and now his flight becomes like the flash of the lightning for swiftness, and like the rushing of clouds for uproar.  The haggard faces of the gods line the walls of Asgard and watch the race with tremulous eagerness.  Youth and immortality are staked upon the winning of Loki.  He is weary enough and frightened enough, too, as the eagle sweeps on close behind him; but he makes desperate efforts to widen the distance between them.  Little by little the eagle gains on the falcon.  The gods grow white with fear; they rush off and prepare great fires upon the walls.  With fainting, drooping wing the falcon passes over and drops exhausted by the wall.  In an instant the fires have been lighted, and the great flames roar to heaven.  The eagle sweeps across the fiery line a second later, and falls, maimed and burned, to the ground, where a dozen fierce hands smite the life out of him, and the great giant Thjasse perishes among his foes.

Idun resumes her natural form as Brage rushes to meet her.  The gods crowd round her.  She spreads the feast, the golden Apples gleaming with unspeakable lustre in the eyes of the gods.  They eat; and once more their faces glow with the beauty of immortal youth, their eyes flash with the radiance of divine power, and, while Idun stands like a star for beauty among the throng, the song of Brage is heard once more; for poetry and immortality are wedded again.