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.

Balder was the most godlike of all the gods, because he was the purest
and the best. Wherever he went his coming was like the coming of
sunshine, and all the beauty of summer was but the shining of his face.
When men's hearts were white like the light, and their lives clear as
the day, it was because Balder was looking down upon them with those
soft, clear eyes that were open windows to the soul of God. He had
always lived in such a glow of brightness that no darkness had ever
touched him; but one morning, after Idun and Brage had gone, Balder's
face was sad and troubled. He walked slowly from room to room in his
palace Breidablik, stainless as the sky when April showers have swept
across it because no impure thing had ever crossed the threshold, and
his eyes were heavy with sorrow. In the night terrible dreams had broken
his sleep, and made it a long torture. The air seemed to be full of
awful changes for him and for all the gods. He knew in his soul that the
shadow of the last great day was sweeping on; as he looked out and saw
the worlds lying in light and beauty, the fields yellow with waving
grain, the deep fiords flashing back the sunbeams from their clear
depths, the verdure clothing the loftiest mountains, and knew that over
all t