Tracing Idunn’s Myths To A Bigger Goddess Story

A goddess disappears and the gods begin to age—that’s the hinge that unlocks a bigger story about power, memory, and return. We take Idunn beyond the orchard and read her as a custodian of cyclical life, using the abduction by Thiazi, Loki’s fraught bargain, and the fiery pursuit to trace how renewal actually works in Norse myth. When Idunn is stolen, the Aesir don’t lose harvests; they lose time. That difference reframes the apples as a sacrament of continuity rather than a simple fertility badge.

From there, we press into kennings, contested sources, and the often-overlooked Odin’s Raven Charm to explore descent motifs echoing Inanna’s journey to the underworld. The parallels aren’t about one-to-one identity; they’re about function: a goddess crosses a boundary, cosmic order falters, and return demands a price. Skadi’s entrance after Thiazi’s death adds a winter mirror to Idunn’s spring, hinting at a dual-aspect archetype—severe and life-giving—split between rival houses. If Bragi embodies poetry and Odin subsumes it, Idunn’s pairing places her at the sovereign threshold where art, memory, and renewal converge.

So, is Idunn the Isis of Germania? Not cleanly. She resonates with Isis through preservation, revival, and communal binding, but lacks strong links to ships, battle, or broad statecraft that define Isis’s late antique profile. The evidence is fragmentary and layered with later glosses, which keeps the verdict cautious. Still, following Idunn sharpens the map: she is not merely a maiden of fruit; she is the point at which gods relearn how to be gods. That makes her essential to any serious reading of Norse cosmology.

If you’re fascinated by mythic crossovers and how fragments reveal a wider pattern, hit play, subscribe for the next candidate in our series, and tell us: which goddess better fits the Isis puzzle and why? Your take might shape where we go next.

Transcript

Names, Kennings, And Roles Of Idun

Loki, The Ox, And The Eagle’s Bargain

Abduction, Decay Of The Aesir, And Rescue

Skadi’s Arrival And The Dual Goddess Theory

Fertility Labels Challenged

The Poems: Haustlöng And Prose Edda

Odin’s Raven Charm And Underworld Parallels

Inanna, Dumuzi, And Odin-Bragi Links

Measuring Idun Against Isis Of Germania

Limits, Open Questions, And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everyone and welcome back to Grail Sciences. My name is Nathaniel Floytmacher and I'm the show's host. Today, as promised, we're going to be going into the goddess Edu as a potential candidate for who I put forth as tachatus as Armania, what he meant by who Isis was of this wavy. If you haven't seen that video, I highly encourage you to go watch it. Otherwise, this one may not make 100% sense for why I'm going into things. So this video will be done in a couple parts with it. One will be just talking about Edun in general and who she is and whether she makes any sense for the candidate for what I had proposed last time as a potential one for it. Those are basically the two parts. The third one will be, you know, possibly going into a little bit of what my theory is about who the actual goddess is and whatnot, and and and what so anyway, with that, I'll just begin. So Edun, there's many metaphors for her. There's many associations that she has in attributes, such as the wife of Bragi, keeper of the apples. The apple are the Aesir's Agekir, the Aesir, excuse me, Aeskir, which is the Nordic gods. She's called the called the precious maiden who increases the joy of the world, the goddess of the benches of the water source field. That's another name for her. Shout out to Maria Quilhog on her book with that same exact title, which was amazing for anybody who's interested in Norse mythology. The youngest child of the Inruler Elders Elf Kind, the Grieving Woman, the Guardian of the Sun of the Resounding River in Hell. The sun is in S Uen, not S Oen, the Drink Willow, Steed Woman, Swan, and Thezzi's booty. Theaze is the one who ends up stealing her away from the gods with the help of Loki, which we'll go into in a moment. So according to Snorri Sturlersen, who is someone who wrote a treaty on how to treat me on how to interpret the North mythology and whatnot, it it's also refer it's also normally referred to the Aesir by calling one by the name of another and referring to him by his deeds or possessions or descent. Obviously, this also applies for female deities as well. He was just using the language of his time, which was he, to fill in for all everybody for what was going on, since we're talking about, you know, in the 1200s for what's happening when he wrote this down for what is now known as the prose edic. Now, why I'm bringing this up is because this is important in order to try to understand who Edun is, what she represents, how she could potentially play things out for what it is. Unfortunately, there's really only one story about her, possibly two, for what's going on that has survived during that time. We know it's a real story, and we know that it's uh important and that she was an important goddess, but we don't know exactly other relevant issues that are associated with her. So the wife of Braggy, as an example, Braggy is the god of poetry for what's going on there. So she's associated with poetry, she's associated with poetic fervor, she's associated with the apples, in this case the apples are and the story allow it to make it so that way the icy gods don't age because of them. Hence why it's also called the precious maiden who increases the joy of the gods, and also the apple or the Asiers age here. So basically how that story plays out is that you have Loki, I think it was Odin, and I forget who the third god was at the top of my head that was there, but there's a third one. It might have been uh Vili or Vay, I forget which one of it, maybe even Thor. But the point is that they're all there and they're trying to burn, or they're trying to they find an ox and they're trying to eat it and whatnot, and they put it into an earth oven. So an oven that's literally in built into the earth for what's going on there, and it just won't cook, no matter what they do, uh, for what it is. And what happens is that there's this gigantic eagle that is sitting inside on top of a tree that's nearby, and he says it won't cook because he's not allowing it to cook for what's going on there, but he will make it cook if as long as they give him some of the ox. Loki doesn't like this idea at first, but eventually consents to it, and they he ends up getting the best parts of the ox and most of the ox for it. Loki gets mad at this for the Ozzy, the Jotun in eagle form at this stage for what's going on there, and takes uh his staff with it or walking stick and hits him with it. This makes it so that way the stick is attached to the Yotin and that Loki can't let go. There's some sort of magical binding that's going on here uh with that. And so the giant in eagle form starts flying and trying to kill Loki, basically, for his offense for trying to hit him with his stick uh that's going on there. Okay, so what does this have to do with Eden? Well, basically Loki you know makes it so that way he pleased for his life, and the Ozzy says that he will grant Loki his life as long as he brings Edun to her, uh to him. Excuse me. So fast forwarding in the story, Loki makes it so that way he goes back to the to Asgard and whatnot, and everybody's back and everybody's forgotten about this incident, but he hasn't because he has to uh keep his promise or he'll be killed for failing to do so. He tricks Idun into going out into the forest to compare her apples with another tree of apples that's there with it. They'll see waiting. Theyazi comes, grabs her, and takes her off into the Jotan lands and whatnot. And then what happens is that the Aesir begin to slowly die and decay and whatnot, and they are not able to continue living on in their normal form. And this makes it so that way what happens is that they all try to figure out what's going on, where I dun went, what happened to her. And of course, someone remembers that Loki was the last one seen with her. So then they go and grab Loki, they bring him before the gods, the council of gods, the council of gods determine his fate and whatnot. He greets he tells him what had happened and what it why everything has occurred, and so they send him off to go and grab Edun back for it, which the short version of this is that he does. He comes and when Theazi's gone, he's takes Freya's falcon wings and turns into a falcon and goes and grabs Edun. He turns her into a nut or a seed of some sort, and he starts flying back to Asgard, but Theazzi figures out that Edun is missing, and so they go and he goes and chases after Loki and whatnot. And then Asgard, the Asgardians make it so that way they prepare fire for what's going through with it, and Loki makes it through, but the eagle and the Yotinar, that's the Ozzy in eagle form, doesn't he crashes into the flames, burns, and then gets killed from that. And then from this, and somebody else shows up in the in this instance, and that's Scotty, another Yotinar that's there for what's going on there because the Azi is her father and she's seeking revenge for him. They agree to make it so that way they compensate her instead for what's happening. This is important because there's a lot of indication that Skiadi and Edun are potentially the same goddess, but two different forms of her. Basically, this is what makes it so that way she comes back. When she comes back, that this is who she is now instead of who she once was, due to what occurred to her inside of those lands with it. That's not something I'm gonna get into here. I'm just letting you know that this is important to understand that there's like this dichotomy between the life-giving side of the goddesses and the Jotanar, and the death-wielding side, if you will, and the more harsh side of them uh for what's going on there. Eden is usually uh described as the goddess of youth or a goddess of love and fertility. This is taken from Rudolf Simek and in his northern dictionary that he's done in terms of the Germanic and Nordic religions. If Eden was indeed venerated as a goddess in pagan times, she would be belong, excuse me, to the fertility goddesses because of her apples. Yeah. This is pulling from Maria again, but I love it. I think it's a great indication. The same logic could be applied to Adam and Eve story and the Garden of Eden, of how that, because of the apples in the story, equals that it's about fertility, which we know that it's not. So this is defective thinking on Simik's part. In my opinion, I agree with Maria here that this is ridiculous. That doesn't prove that she's only about fertility and that she can't have other aspects to her for what's going on there. And of course, the metaphors that are given for her and and whatnot showcase that there's other components to her to begin with, for what she's known by anyway. So that's not really helpful here. There are three main stories that we have for her, three main poems, I should say, that are there with it. Hostlong, which is a ninth century skaltic poem. And then we also have the proseda and the skald skapa mall, which is the story that I was telling you. That's the more elongated version of the Hostlong. Hostlong means the long autumn. And then you also have the Odin's Raven's Charm, or Odin's Raven Gaulder. Let's start with it. This one has been looked up by many scholars, and it does give a different story than the one that we typically have of Edu. And it is hotly contested about what it actually means and what it is. And some people have just given up on it and just claim that there's nothing but nonsense there for what's happening with it. I share a different opinion. I think it's a valid poem. I think that there's a lot to it. I think that it's become corrupted because it was not in the original. It is a copy of somebody else who left it there who does not understand the language as well as they should, and so they wrote things down wrong for their copy. It almost looks like it's someone's uh assignment for what it is, and that the oldistic surviving copy that we have is because the original was was burned and and whatnot. So this is a little bit more about Edun that we've gone into here, and what she could possibly mean. So, Edun and the other story about her, there seems to be some sort of celebration that's going on, with Odin taking over of things, the gods being happy, her sinking down into the tree of life that's there and whatnot for what's going on there. She is, don't forget, referred to as as the steed and whatnot of the tree. So Yigdrasil, which is also a Yigdrithil's and Odin steed for what's going on there. And there appears to be some other stuff with it that's going on. I'm not going to go into the depth of the Raven charm right now for what's going on there. But the point is that there are clear parallels here with what we were happening in terms of a descent into the underworld that Edun has to do, much like Inana does and the stuff that we talked about before, and the she's taking on that particular role, at least for what's left of this text, assuming that it is a valid poetic story from the pagan time periods rather than something that's later. Again, I personally view it as that, but that it's still up, it's still debated and whatnot today, with most scholars leaning towards it not being the case, but that's only because of older scholars saying that it's not the because of the case. Like soap it's bug up as an example. Anyway, what happens is that you have a similar thing where when Odin comes into power and takes over things and people are celebrating, it's the same thing with Demuzi, where Demuzi was celebrating Inana's death that's happening there and in the underworld and doesn't realize that she's going to be brought back and that kind of thing with it. So it seems like it's telling a very similar story in terms of that component that's going on there. And you might be thinking, well, okay, but what does this have to do with Edun and that kind of stuff? What does Odin have to do with that? Well, Bragi is the god of poetry. So if you place poetry there with it, which is an aspect of Odin for what's going on there with Utr and whatnot, then you have to where potentially Bragi equaling poetry and poetry equaling just another aspect of Odin, that Odin is actually, in fact, the one who was married to Edun that's there for what's going on there, which would make it so that way he could fulfill a same or similar role to Demuzi inside of that from a real uh understanding of things or what's going on there? No, I'm not saying that that's the case. I'm just saying I see a parallel there that could be made into for what's going on there. You also see another parallel Gnostic texts that are going on there with it in terms of these stories for what's happening. Now, given what I've been telling you here and all that, does Edun make the case for being Isis and that kind of stuff? Well, if we take her in a greater form and really expand her outward in terms of all the possibilities that she has, including the Odin's Raven Charm poem and that kind of stuff, and saying that she's associated with Inanna, which Inanna and Isis are definitely correlated to each other and whatnot. They're almost the exact same goddess in terms of what they do and represent, except the one's Sumerian and one's Egyptian, then yeah, we can, but that's not something that is definitively proven for what's going on there. It is pure speculation and conjecture for what's happening with it. She does meet certain qualifications for what's happening there with it, but she doesn't meet all of them. And she is not a true candidate for Isis of Germania in and of herself. The problem is that she also is associated with so many other goddesses in particular, and plays such a key role that, and even Jotunars for that matter, that it becomes a little blurred about who she really is, what she really represents, and there's so little left of her that potentially she could, which would go into another theory later on about that after I've gone through the other gods and goddesses that we're gonna be talking about here for what's happening. You know, she doesn't meet a lot of the stuff with that there's not much with her about ships that's going on there, with that the apples do fit in terms of the living resurrection idea that we've talked about briefly, where and immortality that gives to the ace icear for what's going on there when they eat them. You know, so you have that, you have the renewal idea. I mean, her name even means like a source that returns back to itself in terms of water and whatnot, almost like an eddy that goes upstream and that kind of thing with it. So you have that component that goes along with that, but she's not really known for battles, she's not really known for some of these other components that fit ISIS, like we talked about last time, in terms of any direct sense for what's happening there. So I would say that while she could be a candidate for what's happening, that there are better candidates out there, and we'll be looking at those and following videos and whatnot. So stay tuned for that, and we'll go into the the next one on that front. And I look forward to seeing you all there. Thank you very much for your time.