Skadi (Ska›i) the Winter Queen and the Lady of the Mountains and Forests

Skadi is the daughter of Thjazi, the jotun who stole Idunna and her apples, and whom the Æsir killed as he was chasing Loki in his eagle form. She is a forbidding figure; her name has been derived from either “shadow” (Proto-Germanic *skadu-) or “scathe” (Proto-Germanic *skafljan; see Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary, pp. 438, 441). Nonetheless, she is counted among the gods and goddesses; Grímnismál 11 calls her skír brúðr góða, “shining bride of gods,” and the skald Thord Sjáreksson called her snotr go›brú›r, “wise god-bride” (quoted in Skáldskaparmál 6). She inherited her hall, Thrymheim (Þrymheimr), from her father; its name means “Noise-World,” evoking the howling of wolves and winter winds. Yet although it is in the mountains of Jotunheim, it is listed as one of the holy dwellings in Grímnismál 11. Skadi, as envisioned by Foster and Cummings, Asgard Stories (1901)

While some find her rather stern, and less easy to love than Frigg or Freyja, those who do know Skadi see in her the stark beauty of the farthest North, with its glacier-scarred mountains and drifting snows, its howling winds and howling wolves. And although they don’t last long, spring and summer in the far North bring a respite from frost and chill, a greening of the land and a blossoming of flowers—and Skadi, too, has her warm and blossoming side.

Skadi in Medieval Germanic Heroic Literature

The main myth in which Skadi appears is the tale of Thjazi’s abduction of Idunna. When the gods have killed Thjazi, she arms herself and comes to avenge her father. The Æsir immediately offer her compensation; even Thor, who has killed many a jotynja, does not challenge her.

Either the gods are so awed by her might that they are unwilling to risk battle with her, or they recognize that she has right on her side (or quite possibly, both). Although Thjazi was not allowed to take a wife from among the Æsir, Skadi is allowed to choose a husband from among them, but she must choose based only on their feet. She picks the god with the most beautiful feet, believing that it must be Balder—but it turns out to be Njord, possibly because his feet are constantly washed by the sea and therefore the cleanest of any god’s (Ross, “Why Skaði Laughed,” p. 7).

But she also stipulates something that she believes will be impossible: the Æsir must make her laugh. Never at a loss, Loki ties a rope to a goat’s beard and ties the other end to his testicles. The ensuing tug-of-war ends when Loki collapses into Skadi’s lap, and Skadi bursts out laughing. This is comparable to myths in other cultures in which an angry or grieving goddess is made to laugh by a ribald performance. For example, Greek mythology included the story of how Demeter, grieving for the loss of Persephone, was made to laugh by Baubo exposing her genitals; and there are other analogues from ancient Egypt, India, and Japan (Ross, pp. 10-12).

Schröder suggested that her refusal to laugh reflects her role as a goddess of death: “according to Northern European tales, the dead are not able to laugh” (Skadi und die Götter Skandinaviens, p. 25). Schröder also proposed that in the earliest version of the myth, Skadi herself was the goat, and the tug-of-war match was her claiming a sacrifice which caused her to shift from a goddess of death to a goddess of fertility (pp. 25-28). Whatever damage Loki may have sustained does not appear to be a career-ending injury, because in Lokasenna 52 he claims that she has invited him into her bed. But at the end of Lokasenna, it is Skadi who hangs the snake above his head to drip venom on his face. Skadi and Loki have a complex relationship, to say the least. He claims to have been foremost when the gods killed Thjazi her father; yet his tug-of-war feat is what turns her from an implacable foe of the gods to a kinswoman.

Skadi’s Failed Marriage to Njord

Skadi marries Njord, but they cannot agree on a place to live. He cannot stand the howling of wolves in Thrymheim, and she cannot stand the cries of the seagulls in Nóatún. They separate, and Skadi returns to Thrymheim and lives there. It isn’t entirely clear whether they formally divorce or not; even under Christianity, Icelandic law had provisions for couples who stayed married but could not or did not want to live together, and pre-Christian laws probably also allowed for this sort of separation (Sprenkle, “Negotiating Gender,” pp. 37-38). Some Heathens have seen the alternation between living in mild Nóatún and living in icy Thrymheim to reflect Skadi’s own alternation between a grim and deadly aspect and a more pleasant and fruitful aspect. Yet even her fiercest aspect and grimmest deeds stem from her love for her slain father; she is less bothered by Loki’s sexual accusations than by his boast that he was in the forefront at the killing of Thjazi. Skadi clearly cares deeply for her kin.

Skadi’s milder side may also be seen in her care for her children. Although she is not said to have had children with Njord, she gives motherly counsel to Freyr in Skírnismál, which refers to him as her son (although he is in fact her stepson).

She is also the mother of a human ruling dynasty, like Gerðr and Gefjon: according to Ynglinga saga 8, she bears sons to Odin after her separation from Njord. The skaldic poem Háleygjatal claims that one of their sons was Sæmingr, the first of the Jarls of Hlaðir, a lineage that ruled in northern Norway for several generations and defended the old Heathen ways against Christian conversion efforts. Sæmingr’s name has been interpreted as “son of the seed god,” which would hint at Odin’s role in giving fertility; it may mean “the grey one,” which would be a clear reference to the wolf, a beast holy to both of them; or it may be related to the name of the Sámi people, with whom Skadi shares many features, notably skiing ability and relatively free gender roles.

As we have discussed, Gro Steinsland has noted that several noble lines are founded by the mating of a god and a jotun, which she interprets as necessary to unite divine might and the might of the land (“Origin Myths and Rulership,” pp. 26-34).

How and where was Skadi Worshipped?

We have no evidence for the worship of Skadi outside Scandinavia (although some Anglo-Saxon Heathens have been known to honor her under the reconstructed Old English name *Sceaðu). Jan de Vries proposed that the names of Scania (Skåne, now at the southwestern tip of Sweden) and Scandinavia itself (proto-Germanic *skaðinawjō) are derived from her name (Altgermanisches Religionsgeschichte, p. 338), although it seems more likely that they share a common root but are not directly related.

Yet even if Scandinavia itself is not “Skadi’s island,” a number of place names in eastern Sweden and southeastern Norway are derived from Skadi’s name, in particular names derived from Ska›avé, “Skadi’s sanctuary,” such as Skedevi, Skedvi, and Skea, all in Sweden (Simek, Dictionary, p. 287). Skadi mentions her counsel coming frá mínum véum ok vǫngum, “from my sanctuaries and meadows” (Lokasenna 51), which suggests that she had holy fields, like several other deities. In modern times, it might be good to honor her around the beginning of the agricultural year, the time called Charming of the Plough in Britain—traditionally the first day of the ploughing season, just after the end of Yule, when it is still cold and miserable, but the earth is slowly beginning to unfreeze, and the work must begin if there is to be a harvest.

Goddess of the Hunt?

The oldest skaldic poem, Bragi inn gamli’s Ragnarsdrápa, calls Skadi ǫndurdís (“ski-goddess”), and the poems Haustlǫng and Háleygjatal call her ǫndurgoð (“ski-deity”).64 Snorri tells us how she “travels very much on skis and with a bow, and shoots animals” (Gylfaginning 23). Folk poems from Finland call on a god named Tapio and a goddess named Mielikki, who give good luck to hunters.

The Kalevala, assembled from such poems, includes a call to Tapio to lead a hunter to a place where game can be caught, and a call to Mielikki to “open Tapio’s shed” and release the game (Canto 14; Lönnrot, pp. 155-156). Franz Schröder compared Tapio and Mielikki to Ullr and Skadi. He also suggested that Ullr and Skadi were originally brother and sister (Ska›i, pp. 115-116). The available lore does not rule out this possibility: we only know that Sif is Ullr’s mother, but Thor is not his father, so it is at least possible that Thjazi could be Ullr’s father. Snow Fuller, who works closely with Skadi, feels that Skadi and Ullr are certainly allies and friends at the very least, although their exact relationship has not been made clear to her (Lady of the Mountain Hall, p. 29-30).

Skadi and a curious gender puzzle

It’s noteworthy that Skadi’s name is grammatically masculine, and was sometimes used as a man’s name; in fact, a male character named Skaði appears in Vǫlsunga saga 1. Skadi’s role in the myths is also masculine: the legal duty of avenging kin, and the right to inherit ancestral property, almost always fell to men, but Skadi does both, probably because Thjazi had no sons. She is what Icelandic law called a baugrygr, a “ring lady”—a woman with the legal right to receive wergild and the duty to seek it (Sprenkle, “Negotiating Gender,” pp. 27-33). She may thus be especially appreciated today by transgender or genderqueer people—but also by any woman who chooses an occupation or role that society classifies as “masculine.”

Her nature does not fit neatly into the gender roles of Scandinavian society, and this has made her an attractive deity to those who forge their own path in the face of discrimination. Just as Skadi won her place among the gods by her strength and determination, she is often honored by women who have had to fight to win a place for themselves in a world that would deny it to them. And of course, there is absolutely no reason why men should not honor her; her strength, fierceness, and devotion to her father can be inspiring to anyone.

Since Skadi was willing to accept compensation for her father’s death and maintain the peace, rather than starting a blood-feud, she can be called on for justice and fair conflict resolution. Because of her willingness to leave a marriage that was not satisfactory for her and return to her own inheritance, Heathens going through a divorce may find it good to call on her for help in achieving a just and amicable separation (Fuller, Lady of the Mountain Hall, pp. 56-60).

How is Skadi seen today?

She is also called on for luck in hunting and in skiing, and for help in travels through the wilderness. Snow Fuller and several other Heathens today have found that she may be called on for help in getting fit—but please note that she does not have much tolerance for slacking off (Fuller, pp. 25-26.)

As a huntress and traveler in the wilderness, Skadi may be the protector of all wild animals. However, the wolf is often thought of as especially connected with her, because of Njord’s complaints about the wolves howling in Thrymheim. Judging by the myth of how she won her place among the Æsir, some Heathens have seen the goat as linked with her. As a goddess who may show some traits of the Sámi people, she may also be connected to reindeer. Finally, since her father was able to fly in the form of an eagle, some Heathens see a dark eagle as an image of her.

Skadi may be represented today by the colors of mountains in winter: icy white, pale blue, and the greys and browns and blacks of mountain rocks. In modern times, quartz crystals are sometimes considered to be her stone: like snowflakes, they have six-sided symmetry. They are known as “mountain crystal” in most Germanic languages (e.g. Bergkristall in German and Swedish, bjergkrystall in Danish, etc.) and were known as īsīne steina, “ice-stone,” in Old High German. Modern Heathens have found her to be fond of ice-cold vodka, perhaps served in crystal cups