This week's #FolkloreThursday theme is plants, flowers and herbs! I'm doing a couple of Norse-related threads on this theme today but for anyone wanting more of the same I discuss myth & folklore in my new book Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World @BloomsburyAcad

In Snorri’s Edda, a medieval handbook of Norse mythology, apples symbolise fertility and life. The goddess Iðunn (whose name means renewal) guards the apples which keep the gods young, but when she is kidnapped by the jötunn Þjazi – aided by Loki – the gods begin to age rapidly.

This situation must be remedied and the gods force Loki to rescue her back. He travels to Þjazi and turns Iðunn into a nut, transporting her back to Asgard in his claws. Þjazi follows in the shape of an eagle but the gods manage to kill him by setting his feathers on fire.

In Völsunga saga, Saga of the Völsungs, a queen struggles to get pregnant until she prays to the gods. The goddess Frigg, wife of Odin, hears her pain and prayers, and sends her a magic apple, delivered by a valkyrie. The apple helps the queen and king to conceive a child.

But the birth is a difficult one, lasting six years until a caesarean section is performed. The queen dies but the baby, a boy, kisses his mother during her final breaths.

The baby is called Völsungr and he goes on to be a great hero, founding a dynasty which includes Sigurd the dragon-slayer and Áslaug, the warrior-queen of Ragnars saga loðbrókar. (read these two sagas here https://www.hackettpublishing.com/the-saga-of-the-volsungs-4108 in @Norsebysw's wonderful translation)

In the poem Skírnismál (Skírnir’s Lay), the god Freyr falls in love with Gerd, a jötunn woman, after seeing her from Odin’s high seat. He sends his servant Skírnir to woo her but she rejects him.

Skírnir turns to trying to bribe Gerdr, offering a ring and eleven golden apples, usually understood to be Iðunn’s golden ones, but to no avail. He finally threatens her in horrible ways and she yields.

I discuss these scenes and issues such as fertility and life, childbirth, medicine, consent in marriage, violence and death in my new book Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World, out today from @bloomsburyAcad! https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/valkyrie-9781788314770/