Skadi
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In Norse mythology, Skaði (/ˈskɑːði/; Old Norse: [ˈskɑðe]; sometimes anglicized as Skadi, Skade, or Skathi) is a Jötunn and a goddess associated with bow hunting, skiing, winter, and mountains. Skaði is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, both written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, as well as in skaldic poetry.
Skaði is the daughter of the deceased Þjazi and married the god Njörðr as part of the compensation the gods arranged for the death of her father. In Heimskringla, it is said that Skaði separated from Njörðr, later married Odin, and had many children with him. In both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Skaði is responsible for placing the snake that drips venom onto the bound Loki. Skaði is alternately referred to as Öndurguð (Old Norse "ski god") and Öndurdís (Old Norse "ski dís").
The etymology of the name Skaði is uncertain but may be linked to the original form of Scandinavia. Some place names in Scandinavia refer to Skaði. Scholars have suggested a potential connection between Skaði and the god Ullr (also associated with skiing), a particular relationship with the Jötunn Loki, and links between Scandinavia and the name Skaði (possibly meaning "Skaði's island") or with Old Norse terms meaning either "shadow" or "harm." Skaði has inspired various works of art.
Etymology
The Old Norse name Skaði may be related to Gothic skadus, Old English sceadu, Old Saxon scado, and Old High German scato (all meaning "shadow")—see also the Irish Scáthach, a famous warrior known as "the shadowy one." Scholar John McKinnell notes that this etymology suggests Skaði was once a personification of the geographic region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld.
Georges Dumézil disputes the idea that Scadin-avia etymologically means "the island of the goddess Skaði." Dumézil argues that the first element, Scadin, must have had (or still retains) a connection to "darkness" or something else that remains uncertain. He suggests that the name Skaði may instead derive from the geographic region's name, which was no longer fully understood at the time. Dumézil draws a parallel with Ériu, a goddess personifying Ireland in some Irish texts, whose name he believes comes from Ireland rather than the other way around.
Alternatively, Skaði may be connected to the Old Norse noun skaði ('harm'), which gives rise to Icelandic and Faroese skaði ('damage, injury') and is related to English scathe (to harm, injure).
Attestations
Skaði is mentioned in the Poetic Edda, in two books of the Prose Edda, and in one book of Heimskringla.
Poetic Edda
In the Grímnismál poem of the Poetic Edda, the god Odin (disguised as Grímnir) reveals the existence of twelve places to the young Agnarr. Odin mentions the location Þrymheimr sixth, stating in a single stanza that the Jötunn Þjazi once lived there, and now his daughter Skaði resides there. Odin describes Þrymheimr as "ancient courts" and refers to Skaði as "the shining bride of the gods."
In the prose introduction to the poem Skírnismál, the god Freyr is heartbroken over a beautiful girl (the Jötunn Gerðr) he has seen in Jötunheimr. The god Njörðr asks Freyr’s servant Skírnir to speak to Freyr, and in the poem's first stanza, Skaði also asks Skírnir to question Freyr about why he is so sorrowful. Skírnir responds that he expects harsh words from her son Freyr.
In the prose introduction to Lokasenna, Skaði is identified as Njörðr’s wife and one of the goddesses attending Ægir’s feast. After Loki has a conversation with the god Heimdallr, Skaði interjects. She calls Loki "reckless" and warns him that he will soon no longer "frolic freely wagging his tail," as the gods will bind him to a sharp rock with the icy entrails of his son. Loki responds that, even if that were true, he played a key role in the killing of her father, Þjazi. Skaði retorts that if this is so, then from her "sanctuaries and plains" will always flow "evil counsel." Loki counters by claiming Skaði was kinder when she lay in his bed—a claim he makes against many goddesses in the poem but is otherwise unattested. Loki then shifts his insults to the goddess Sif.
In the prose section at the end of Lokasenna, the gods capture Loki and bind him with the entrails of his son Nari while turning his son Váli into a wolf. Skaði places a venomous snake above Loki’s face. The venom drips onto him, and Loki’s wife Sigyn holds a bowl under the snake to catch the venom. When the bowl is full, Sigyn must empty it, and during this time, the venom drips onto Loki’s face. This causes Loki to writhe in great pain, shaking so violently that all earthquakes stem from his writhing.
In the poem Hyndluljóð, the Jötunn Hyndla tells the goddess Freyja various mythological genealogies. In one stanza, Hyndla mentions that Þjazi "was fond of shooting" and that Skaði was his daughter.
Prose Edda
In the Prose Edda, Skaði is mentioned in two books: Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál.
Gylfaginning
In Chapter 23 of the book Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda, the enthroned figure of High recounts that Njörðr's wife, Skaði, is the daughter of the Jötunn Þjazi and tells a story involving the two of them. High recalls that Skaði wished to live in the house that had once belonged to her father, called Þrymheimr. Njörðr, on the other hand, wanted to live closer to the sea. They agreed to alternate between nine nights in Þrymheimr and the next three nights (or nine winters in Þrymheimr and the following nine in Nóatún, according to Codex Regius) in Njörðr’s house by the sea, Nóatún. However, after returning from the mountains to Nóatún, Njörðr said:
"The mountains I loathed;
I was not long there,
only nine nights.
The howling of wolves
sounded ugly to me,
compared to the song of swans."
Skaði replied:
"I could not sleep
on the seashore,
because of the screaming bird.
The gull wakes me,
as it comes each morning
from the wide sea."
The sources for these verses are not specified in the Prose Edda or elsewhere. High says that after this, Skaði returned to the mountains and lived in Þrymheimr. There, Skaði often traveled on skis, wielded a bow, and hunted wild animals. High notes that Skaði is also called "Ski-God" (Öndurgud) or "Ski-Lady" (Öndurdís). To support this, High cites the aforementioned stanza from the Grímnismál poem in the Poetic Edda.
In the next chapter (24), High states that Njörðr "afterward" had two children: Freyr and Freyja. The mother of these two children is not named in this context.
At the end of Chapter 51 of Gylfaginning, High describes how the gods captured and bound Loki. Skaði took a venomous snake and fastened it above the bound Loki so that the venom would drip onto his face. Loki's wife, Sigyn, sat by his side and caught the venom in a bowl. However, when the bowl became full, Sigyn had to leave to empty it, during which time the venom dripped onto Loki’s face, causing him to writhe in pain so violently that the earth shook. This, High explains, is the origin of earthquakes.
Skáldskaparmál
In Chapter 56 of the book Skáldskaparmál, Bragi recounts to Ægir how the gods killed Þjazi. Skaði, Þjazi’s daughter, donned a helmet, a coat of mail, and “all weapons of war” and traveled to Asgard, the home of the gods. Upon her arrival, the gods sought to compensate Skaði for her loss and offered her a settlement. Skaði presented her conditions for compensation, and the gods agreed that Skaði could choose a husband from among them. However, Skaði had to make her choice by looking only at their feet. Skaði saw a pair of feet that she found particularly appealing and declared, "I choose him; there can be nothing ugly about Baldr." However, the feet belonged to Njörðr.
Skaði also demanded that the gods do something she thought impossible: make her laugh. To fulfill this demand, Loki tied one end of a rope to a goat’s beard and the other end to his testicles. The goat and Loki pulled each other back and forth, both squealing loudly, until Loki fell into Skaði’s lap, causing her to laugh and completing this part of the settlement. As further compensation, Odin took Þjazi’s eyes, cast them into the sky, and turned them into stars.
Additionally, Skáldskaparmál cites a work by the skald Þórðr Sjáreksson, which refers to Skaði as "the wise bride of the gods" and notes that "she could not love the Van." The prose clarifies that this is an allusion to Skaði leaving Njörðr.
In Chapter 16, Loki’s names include "quarreler of Heimdall and Skaði." In Chapter 22, Skaði is referenced in the 10th-century poem Haustlöng, where the skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir refers to an ox as "the bow-drawn whale of the Skadi [Skaði]." In Chapter 23, the skald Bragi Boddason calls Þjazi the "father of the Skíðis [Skaði]." In Chapter 32, Skaði is listed among six goddesses who attend a feast hosted by Ægir. In Chapter 75, Skaði is included in a list of 27 ásynjur names.
Heimskringla
In Chapter 8 of the Heimskringla book Ynglinga saga, Skaði appears in a euhemerized account. It is said that Skaði once married Njörðr but did not want to sleep with him, and later married Odin. Skaði and Odin had "many sons," but only one name is recorded: Sæmingr, a king of Norway. Two stanzas attributed to the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir are cited as references. In the first stanza, Skaði is described as a Jötunn and a "beautiful maiden." Part of the second stanza is missing. The second stanza reads:
From sea-bones,
and many sons,
the ski-goddess
begot with Odin.
Lee Hollander explains that "sea bones" is a kenning for "rocks" and believes the incomplete stanza likely refers to Skaði as a "dweller of the rocks," aligning with her association with mountains and skiing.
Theories
Völsunga saga
Another figure named Skaði appears in Chapter 1 of the Völsunga saga. In this chapter, Skaði, a male, owns a slave named Breði. One winter, another man, Sigi, a son of Odin, went hunting with the slave. They hunted all day, and by evening, they compared their catches. Sigi saw that the slave had hunted more than he had, so he killed Breði and buried his body in a snowdrift.
That night, Sigi returned home, claiming Breði had ridden into the forest, that he had lost sight of him, and he didn’t know what had happened to the slave. Skaði doubted Sigi’s explanation and suspected he was lying and had killed Breði. Skaði gathered men to search for Breði, and the group eventually found the slave’s body buried in the snow. Skaði declared that the snowdrift would henceforth be called "Breði’s snowdrift," and since then, people referred to large snowdrifts by this name. Sigi’s murder of Breði was evident, and he was deemed an outlaw. Led by Odin, Sigi left the land, and Skaði is not mentioned further in the saga.
The scholar Jesse Byock notes that the goddess Skaði is also associated with winter and hunting, and that the episode in the Völsunga saga involving the male Skaði, Sigi, and Breði may stem from a now-lost myth.
Other Theories
Scholar John Lindow suggests that the episode in Gylfaginning describing Loki’s antics with a goat may be connected to castration and a ritual involving making a goddess laugh. Lindow also notes that Loki and Skaði appear to have a particular relationship, as exemplified by Skaði placing the snake above Loki's face in both Lokasenna and Gylfaginning.
Because of their shared association with skiing and the fact that place names related to Ullr and Skaði are most commonly found in Sweden, some scholars have proposed a special connection between these two gods. On the other hand, Skaði might originally have been a male figure, leading some scholars to theorize that Skaði was initially a male deity.
The scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson suggests that Skaði’s cult may have flourished in Hålogaland, a province in northern Norway, because "she exhibits traits of the Sámi people, who were known for skiing, archery, and hunting; her separation from Njörðr may reflect a division between her cult and that of the Vanir in this region, where Scandinavians and Sámi were in close contact."
Modern Influence
Modern artistic depictions of Skaði include Skadi and Niurd (illustration, 1883) by K. Ehrenberg and Skadi (1901) by Emil Doepler the Younger. Skaði also appears in Adam Oehlenschläger’s 1819 poem Skades Giftermaal (Skadi’s Marriage).
Art Deco representations of the god Ullr (1928) and Skaði (1929) appear on the covers of the Swedish ski yearbook På Skidor, both shown skiing and wielding bows. E. John B. Allen notes that these depictions lend "historical authority to this most important Swedish ski journal," which has been published since 1893.
Several celestial bodies are named after Skaði, including a moon of Saturn (Skathi) and a mountain on Venus (Skadi Mons).
The webcomic Skadi, created by Katie Rice and Luke Cormican and published on the weekly comic site Dumm Comics, features Skaði as the main character.
The Rotterdam rowing club is named after Skaði.
Skaði appears in the Japanese smartphone game Fate/Grand Order, where she can be summoned as a servant of the Caster class, merged with Scáthach.
An operator and her alternate version in the mobile game Arknights are named after the goddess.
In Age of Mythology (2002) by Ensemble Studios, Skaði is one of nine Norse minor gods that players can worship. Skaði is also a playable god in the third-person multiplayer online battle arena game Smite.