nymph, charmed at the sight, stopped to pick up the apples : Hippomenes hastened on the course, 
arrived first at the goal, and obtained Atalanta in marriage. 
As the Grecian, so also do the myths of the Scandinavian and the Sclavonic nations abound in 
references to the apple, often very curious, and always interesting. The poetical fancies repeat them¬ 
selves again and again in varied terms, and the mythical apples are usually golden. Where how¬ 
ever a touch of reality appears, the apple may be the citron, the orange, the quince, the peach, the 
apricot, or the pomegranate; or it may even be the plum, the almond, or the nut. 
In the prose Edcla we are told that the goddess Iduna had the care of the apples which had 
the power of conferring immortality. They 'were, consequently, reserved for the gods who ate of 
them when they began to feel themselves growing old. It is in this manner that they will be kept 
in renovated youth until Ragnarok, the general destruction. The evil spirit Loke, it is said, took 
away Iduna and her apple tree, and hid them in the forest where they could not be found by the 
gods. In consequence of this malicious theft everything went wrong in the whole world. The 
gods became old and infirm ; enfeebled both in mind and body. They no longer paid the same 
attention to the affairs of the earth ; and men having no one to look after them, fell into evil courses 
and became the prey of mischief and distress. At length the gods finding matters getting worse 
and worse every day, roused their last remains of vigour, and, combining together, forced Loke to 
restore the tree. In the prose Edcla also, Skirnir offers eleven golden apples and the ring 
Draupnir—from which on every ninth night eight equally heavy rings drop—to Gerda, if she will 
return Freyr’s love. 
A Polish legend, given by Mannhart, says, There is a glass mountain, on the top of which 
stands a golden castle, and before it is a tree of golden apples. In the castle lives the enchanted 
daughter of a prince. Many vainly try to get on the mountain ; but at last the youth who has 
fastened the claws of a lynx to his hands and feet is successful. With the golden apple, he calms 
the dragon he finds at the entrance; and finally having broken the spell that bound the princess, 
he must remain with her and not return to the lower earth. 
In the curious Polish myth, “ Madey,” a Bishop, passing through a dense forest, smells the 
sweet odour of apples, and his attendants discover a tree full of fruit, which they are unable to 
gather, and under the tree an old gray-haired man is kneeling. It is the desperate robber Madey, 
full of repentance and sorrow for the past. He entreats the Bishop to hear his confession and give 
him absolution. Elis request is granted, and during the confession, the apples on the tree, one 
after another, are changed into snow white doves, fly up, and disappear. Soon there is only one 
apple on the tree. . It is the soul of Madey’s father, whom he had murdered, but could not bring 
himself to confess the deed. At length he does so, and the last apple, as a beautiful white dove, 
flies away to heaven. The Bishop in the end grants him absolution, and the body of Madey 
crumbles into dust. “ Sclavonic Fairy Tales.” Naake. 
A Hanoverian legend says that a girl was asked by the dwarfs to be godmother to one of 
their children. On the appointed day she was led dowm a beautiful staircase which was under an 
apple tree in the court of a superb garden, whose trees were laden with fruits. She was repaid for 
coming with an apron full of apples, which when she returned to the earth’s surface were found_ 
like the fruit of Aladdin—to be of solid gold. 
