(as told to his saplings by Tyrfingr the Norwegian Spruce)


Once there were two brothers, Yngvarr and Huldrik, who had grown from the same trunk. They loved to cause mischief, but had good intentions. Their favorite joke was to pull their roots from the ground in one spot and move to a different spot where their mother would not expect them to be.

“Oh my sons! They have disappeared, never to be seen again,” their mother would cry loudly until she could hear their laughing and therefore find them where they hid. Each time, they would be punished by having to bend down to touch their roots for an entire day.

One day, when they were standing thus, a squirrel ran by. It was Ratatosk, the world's biggest gossip, on his way to deliver the latest rumors from one god to another. He stopped in front of the twin trees and twitched his furry tail curiously at them.

“Why are you standing like that,” the squirrel demanded.

“Why are you running by in such a hurry,” asked the brothers in return.

The squirrel twitched his whiskers angrily, for he had been sworn to secrecy, but wanted so badly to know why trees would stand so strangely, bent almost in half and touching their roots with their crowns.

“Fine, I'll tell you,” consented the squirrel. He felt it below his station to tell such valuable information to mere trees, but he saw no other choice. “Thor's hammer has been stolen. He said he heard a giant walking by in the night and in the morning, the hammer was gone. I,” the squirrel puffed up his chest with importance, “am bringing a message to Loki, king of the giants, demanding it's return. Thor says if it isn't returned, he will spread a storm across the entire nine worlds to block out all the sunlight.”

“Interesting,” commented Yngvarr, speaking to his roots.

“Fascinating,” added Huldrik, speaking to his roots.

The squirrel twitched a whisker expectantly, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“You promised to tell me why you are standing like that.”

“I don't remember any such promise,” said Yngvarr.

“Nor do I,” added Huldrik.

Ratatosk knew he had been tricked and ran away quickly while the two trees laughed.

Yngvarr and Huldrik were still laughing when the first rumbles of thunder became audible in the distance. One brother turned towards the other. If Ratatosk was telling the truth, it was actually quite a serious situation. Lightning could be very dangerous to tall trees and a cloud that could cover the whole sky would block out life giving sun, starving many plants if it went on for too long.

Yngvarr shrugged his branches (a difficult task while hanging upside down), “Well, what do you think?”

“Let's go,” Huldrik responded.

The two brothers stood up straight, looked around to make sure their mother was not watching, and pulled their roots out of the ground. Though this was far from the first time they had done this, the twins had never actually left the hilltop where they had first sprouted.

At the bottom of the hill Huldrik looked back. He could still see the tall elder tree that was the father of their copse. He looked so small from here. They kept walking.

At the top of the next hill Yngvarr looked back. He could still see the hill that was their home. It looked so small from here. They kept walking.

They crossed many hills, traversed many streams, climbed up a mountain. Now when they looked back they couldn't see their home at all. It would have been very lonely if they had not had each other.

After ten days of walking the twin trees reached a house. Outside of the house was a well guarded by an old human man with a long white beard. The two brothers stopped and stood still as soon as they saw him, unsure of how he would react to seeing two trees.

“You might as well come over,” the old man called out. “I know you weren't growing there yesterday.”

The two trees didn't move, but the old man kept talking. “I don't get many travelers coming through here, and even fewer trees.” He paused as though awaiting a response, then continued, “See, this is the last well before entering Jotunhein, the land of the giants. It's a very difficult journey from here forward, not much water available.”

Huldrik could no longer keep silent, “May we have some of your water?”

The bearded man steepled his fingers in front of his lips and hmmed for a moment, “Odin himself once traded one of his eyes for a chance to drink from Mimir's well.”

Yngvarr thought for a moment. They hadn't brought anything with them, so trading something as valuable as the eye of a god seemed impossible. Then, he had an idea. Reaching up towards one of his upper branches, he plucked a pine cone then held it out towards the old man.

“This is a pine cone, a container that holds an entire forest within it. If you bury it in the ground and wait long enough the forest will slowly emerge and grow until it covers the land all around your home.”

The old man, who was Mimir himself, held out his hand and accepted the tree's offering. “Very good. For that, I will even give you a flask in which to carry the water.”

With the flask slung over one of Yngvarr's branches, the twin trees continued onward into Loki's realm..

Overhead the sky grew darker and darker, black clouds growing and swirling to remind those down below that Thor was getting impatient. Underroot, the ground grew more and more rocky. Ahead and behind the land stretched out, on and on nothing but rocks. There were no trees, no bushes, just rocks and rocks and more rocks.

Two ravens circled. Curious as to what two trees were doing all the way out in the barrens of Jotunheim they swung lower and lower until they were swooping around and around the tops of the twin trees making them dizzy.

“What is this?” The first raven cackled.

“What is this?” The second raven repeated.

“Looks like trees.”

“Looks like trees indeed.”

“Why are they here?”

“Why are they here?” The two ravens circled and circled.

Finally the two trees stopped walking. “What do you want?” Yngvarr was not very patient in his asking.

“Don't remember,” answered the first raven.

“Can't think of it,” answered the second.

Think? Remember? “You're Muninn and Huginn, aren't you?” Huldrik recognized them from the stories, they were Odin's pet ravens who embodied memory and thought.

“Figured it out, did he?” Muninn landed on a rock and fluffed his feathers with pride.

“Knows who we are, he does.” Huginn landed next to him. They cocked their heads at the two trees as if expecting something.

“You are...” prompted Huginn.

“Yngvarr and Huldrik, two trees on a quest,” sighed Yngvarr, already tired of these pesky birds.

“Going into the giant's land, cak cak,” it sounded as though the raven was laughing.

“Think you can get back the hammer all on your own, cak cak.”

“Do you know something?” Yngvarr asked.

The raven's blinked at him as if to say, 'Of course.'

Huldrik, more patient than his brother, asked a different way. “What do you know about the location of Thor's hammer?” He could have sworn the ravens smiled at him after he asked.

“We saw the thief.”

“That we did. Saw him give it to Loki.”

“Saw where Loki put it.”

“In a box.”

“A big box.”

“Thank you,” Huldrik added, sure to remain polite. Yngvarr remained silent, sensing that his brother was having better luck than he was with the ravens. “Is there anything else we should know?”

“Cak cak.” The ravens didn't respond other than to laughingly flap their wings and take off into the air. They took one last circle around the two trees before disappearing against the black of the stormy sky.

The brothers were about to start walking again when two black feathers floated down to land at their roots. Huldrik picked them up and looked up at the sky, but the ravens were long gone.