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.”

Nanna: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the eyes do, and the ears, when the lord they love to see, and the voice they love to hear, have gone from them?”

Norn: “The eyes grow dim with watching and longing, and the ears deaf with hearkening and listening—nought else can they do.”

Nanna: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the limbs do, when the support they twine round has been removed?”

Norn: “The limbs fall powerless to the earth when their support has gone; they cannot raise themselves nor stir themselves; they await a wakening voice, which shall bid them live once more.”

Nanna: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the heart do, when the body is lifeless, the thoughts scattered, the eyes and ears worn, the limbs powerless?”

Norn: “The heart is no longer in the body. It went away with the soul, with the master-brain, with the lord the eyes loved to see and the ears to hear, with the support the limbs clung to. And not till that great awakening lord brings back the heart, will the body become quickened, the thoughts reach their mark, the eyes and the ears revive, the limbs stir and raise themselves once more.”

So Nanna went back to Asgard, and shut herself up forlornly in her golden palace till such time as Baldur should bring back her heart.