Editing Iðunn (section)

===''Poetic Edda''===
[[File:Idunn and Bragi by Blommer.jpg|thumb|''Bragi sitting playing the harp, Iðunn standing behind him'' (1846) by [[Nils Blommér]]]]
Iðunn appears in the Poetic Edda poem ''[[Lokasenna]]'' and, included in some modern editions of the ''Poetic Edda'', in the late poem ''[[Hrafnagaldr Óðins]]''.

Iðunn is introduced as Bragi's wife in the prose introduction to the poem ''Lokasenna'', where the two attend a feast held by [[Ægir]]. In stanzas 16, 17, and 18, dialog occurs between [[Loki]] and Iðunn after Loki has insulted Bragi. In stanza 16, Iðunn (here [[Anglicisation|anglicized]] as ''Idunn'') says:

{{Poem quote|
''Idunn said:''
:I ask you, Bragi, to do a service to your blood-kin
:and all the adoptive relations,
:that you shouldn't say words of blame to Loki,
:in Ægir's hall.

''Loki said:''
:Be silent, Idunn, I declare that of all women
:you're the most man-crazed,
:since you placed your arms, washed bright,
:about your brother's slayer

''Idunn said:''
:I'm not saying words of blame to Loki,
:in Ægir's hall
:I quietened Bragi, made talkative with beer;
:and all living things love him.<ref name="LARRINGTON87-88">Larrington (1999:87–88).</ref>}}

In this exchange, Loki has accused Iðunn of having slept with the killer of her brother. However, neither this brother nor killer are accounted for in any other surviving source.<ref name="LINDOW198-199">Lindow (2001:198–199).</ref> Afterward, the goddess [[Gefjon]] speaks up and the poem continues in turn.

In the poem ''[[Hrafnagaldr Óðins]]'', additional information is given about Iðunn, though this information is otherwise unattested. Here, Iðunn is identified as descending from [[Elf#Old Norse texts|elves]], as one of "[[Sons of Ivaldi|Ivaldi's elder children]]" and as a [[dís]] who dwells in [[valley|dales]]. Stanza 6 reads:

{{Poem quote|
In the dales dwells,
the prescient Dís,
from Yggdrasil's
ash sunk down,
of alfen race,
Idun by name,
the youngest of Ivaldi's
elder children.<ref name="THORPE29">Thorpe (1866:29).</ref>}}