BALDUR was once obliged to go away out of Asgard and leave Nanna all
alone. So Nanna was very sad. She knew that no one would hurt her
Baldur, but still it was to her as though he had been swallowed up by
the mists of Niflheim, and as though she would never see him again. So
she went to the Norns who dwell by the tree Ygdrasil, and she said:—
NANNA: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the
body do, when the soul has left it?”
NORN: “The body when the soul has left it can do nothing; it
is lifeless and inert, and turns to dust.”
NANNA: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the
thoughts do, when the master-brain has left them?”
NORN: “The thoughts fly hither and thither when the
master-brain has left them. They seek their director, and finding him
not, fall fluttering to the ground lifeless and useless, or lose their
way along paths that have no ending.”
NANNA: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the
eyes do, and the ears, when the lord they love to see, and the voice
they love to hear, have gone from them?”
NORN: “The eyes grow dim with watching and longing, and the
ears deaf with hearkening and listening—nought else can they do.”
NANNA: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the
limbs do, when the support they twine round has been removed?”
NORN: “The limbs fall powerless to the earth when their
support has gone; they cannot raise themselves nor stir themselves;
they await a wakening voice, which shall bid them live once more.”
NANNA: “Tell me, oh Norns, who know all things. What can the
heart do, when the body is lifeless, the thoughts scattered, the eyes
and ears worn, the limbs powerless?”
NORN: “The heart is no longer in the body. It went away with
the soul, with the master-brain, with the lord the eyes loved to see
and the ears to hear, with the support the limbs clung to. And not till
that great awakening lord brings back the heart, will the body become
quickened, the thoughts reach their mark, the eyes and the ears revive,
the limbs stir and raise themselves once more.”
So Nanna went back to Asgard, and shut herself up forlornly in her
golden palace till such time as Baldur should bring back her heart.