Skadi

Vengeance for Thjazi

Skadi's father, the giant Thjazi, abducted the goddess Idunn and her apples of youth and was killed by the gods when he pursued Loki back to Asgard. Snorri Sturluson's Skaldskaparmal tells how Skadi took up helmet, mail, and weapons and went to Asgard to avenge him. The gods offered compensation: she might choose a husband from among them, seeing only their feet. Hoping for Baldr, she chose the most beautiful feet, and they belonged to Njord, god of the sea. The gods also had to make her laugh, which Loki managed with a crude trick, and Odin threw Thjazi's eyes into the sky as stars.

Mountains and Sea

The marriage failed. Skadi wanted to live in her father's mountain hall Thrymheim; Njord wanted his seaside home Noatun. They agreed to alternate, nine nights in each, but each hated the other's home, and Skadi returned to the mountains, where she hunts on snowshoes with her bow.

Against Loki

Skadi is bitterly hostile to Loki. When the gods bind him after Baldr's death, it is Skadi who fastens a venomous serpent above his face. In the poem Lokasenna Loki taunts her with his part in her father's death, and she answers with threats.

Traces of Cult

Place names in Norway and Sweden may preserve her name, suggesting she had cult sites, though scholars dispute the readings. Later sources, including the Ynglinga saga, pair her with Odin as ancestress of Norwegian jarls.