Idun (pronounced “EE-done"), in Norse folklore, is the goddess of spring and rebirth.
She and her husband, Bragi, the god of music and poetry, lived in Asgard, the home of the gods.
A single source identifies her as an elder daughter of Ivaldi (a dwarf), and, since dwarves and elves were sometimes conflated in Norse folklore, this makes her a descendant of elves.
In this same source, she's also called a dís¸ a protective spirit associated with fate and fertility.
Idun took care of the magic apples the gods ate to remain immortal.
The Prose Edda, a book of Norse legends written in the 1220s, contains a story about Idun and the magic apples (The Kidnapping of Idun; a tale, which comes from the skaldic poem Haustlöng and the Prose Edda excerpted from the Nordic pantheon):
One day Loki, the trickster god, was captured by a giant named Thiassi.
The giant refused to free Loki until he agreed to bring Idun and the apples to Thiassi's home.
Loki gave his word and sped off to Asgard....
He invited Idun to bring her apples and walk into the forest, where he knew of some even more precious apples.
Eager to compare her special fruit with that mentioned by Loki, Idun joined the trickster.
But as soon as they reached the forest, Thiassi, in the form of an eagle, dove from the sky and seized the goddess and her apples.
Without Idun's apples, the gods in Asgard began to age.
As the trickster god Loki plays a significant role in Idun's disappearance and due to the complications of which, the gods met and devised a plan...
They became bent and feeble and demanded that Loki rescue Idun from Thiassi. Afterwards, Loki and his league kills the giant...
When she is returned to Asgard the gods regain their youth....
“Bright Iduna, Maid immortal!
Standing at Valhalla’s portal,
In her casket has rich store
Of rare apples gilded o’er;
Those rare apples, not of Earth,
Ageing Æsir give fresh birth.”
Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
More:
See Loki:
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A rare picture of Idunna and her apples: