The gods take a close look at the apple. GETTY IMAGES
The gods take a close look at the apple. GETTY IMAGES
The Gods of Asgard were bored. Restless and void of any purpose, some even longed for Ragnarok.
Only Odin's wife, Frigg, was content with the unchanging cycle of existence. Odin himself had lost interest in fighting dead warriors and feasting in the hall of Valhalla. Thor spent long immortal days oiling his hammer, Mjollnir.
It was Loki, who, for his own reasons, came up with the idea of a game. To be played on Midgard, the world of mortal men and women. The other gods enthusiastically agreed. On the day of the game, they travelled down Bifrost, the flaming rainbow bridge between worlds.
Giants make up the numbers in the Norse gods' teams. GETTY IMAGES
The object of the game was simple. One team would take turns at throwing a hard, unripe apple at a player from the other team, who would attempt to hit the apple as far as they could with Thor's hammer.
A hit that went out beyond the serpent Jormungand which encircled Midgard scored one to the tally.
At the last moment, Loki added the rule that a player holding Thor's hammer must stand in front of the great tree, Yggdrasill. If an apple hit the tree, then the god or giant's turn with the hammer would be over.
Thor captained one team, Odin the other. Loki chose to play on the side of Thor, which raised some eyebrows.
Thor's team hit nine apples out beyond the serpent Jormungand. Odin proved a fearsome hurler of apples, as did Freyr, who possessed some of the shiniest apples which fizzed through the air.
Thor checks out his hammer, Mjollnir, ahead of Loki's little game. GETTY IMAGES
The game was coming to an end when Odin, at last, took his place in front of the great tree wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a blue cloak. He looked determinedly towards Thor with his one eye.
It was then that Loki came up to Thor and offered him an apple. "Use this apple that I've been saving for Odin," said Loki.
"Why?" asked Thor. "Because it will get past Odin's swing," Loki replied.
"How?" Thor asked, before adding, "Never mind, give it to me, I don't want to know." He only wanted to see the apple smash into the tree trunk behind Odin.
But before he could throw, Balder, the gentle and beloved son of Odin and Frigg, intervened. He had sat out the game, only wishing to watch and enjoy the competition in his neutral and wise manner.
Balder said, "Thor, give me the apple that Loki gave you." And before all the gods and giants, as well as the men and women of Midgard who had gathered around, he broke open the apple to show where Loki had inserted in one half a gold nugget.
Balder explained that Loki was trying to gain advantage by making the ball move oddly through the air, making it more difficult for Odin to hit.
Loki tried to shrug it off by saying that he meant no harm, "It's only a game." But then he saw the anger on Odin's face and the disappointment on Thor's, while gods, giants, men and women alike, started booing and calling Loki a cheat.
Loki shed tears hoping to gain sympathy, but there was none.
It was agreed that Ratatosk, the squirrel, should be asked to pass judgment on Loki. Which he did, banishing Loki from Asgard for a year, and on returning to be banned from instigating games that would ever again embarrass the gods in front of mortals.
For the men and women of Midgard, the time the gods came to earth to play their game was for a short while a talking point in the feasting halls and privately in their family huts.
They never did forget, though, the sullen way the gods slunk away from Midgard. Perhaps the gods weren't worthy of the love and devotion they had previously given them, and fewer of the warriors amongst them wanted to join the gods in Valhalla.
And as they got on with their lives, they kind of thanked Loki for that.
