Þjóð Haustl 9III/3 — elli ‘the old-age’
Sér bað sagna hrœri
sorgœran mey fœra,
þás ellilyf ása,
áttrunnr Hymis, kunni.
Brunnakrs of kom bekkjar
Brísings goða dísi
girðiþjófr í garða
grjót-Níðaðar síðan.
Áttrunnr Hymis bað hrœri sagna, sorgœran, fœra sér mey, þás kunni ellilyf ása. Girðiþjófr Brísings of kom síðan dísi goða í garða grjót-Níðaðar bekkjar Brunnakrs.
The kinsman of Hymir <giant> [GIANT = Þjazi] ordered the leader of the troops [= Loki], pain-crazed, to bring him the girl who knew the old-age medicine of the gods. The girdle-thief of Brísingr [= Loki] afterwards caused the lady of the gods [= Iðunn] to go into the courts of the rock-Níðuðr <legendary tyrant> [GIANT = Þjazi] to the bench of Brunnakr (‘Spring-field’).
notes
[3] ellilyf ása ‘the old-age medicine of the gods’: It has often been assumed that this phrase refers to some magical apples that Iðunn guarded and was in the habit of distributing to the gods to keep them young, which is evidently what Snorri understands in Skm (cf. SnE 1998, I, 1-2), where he refers to Iðunn’s epli ‘apples’ and later states (ibid., 30) that the apples (eplin) can be called ellilyf Ásanna ‘the old-age medicine of the Æsir’, after which he cites Haustl 1-13. The cpd ellilyf (elli ‘old age’ plus lyf ‘medicine, elixir’) is a hap. leg., though its two components are not. Earlier scholars (e.g. Bugge 1889b) considered the motif of Iðunn’s old age-preventing apples was borrowed from Classical or possibly Irish sources, but this view has not been followed in later scholarship (cf. Maier 2000).