Bestiary · Sea God / Wealth God
Njord
Njord: the Norse god of the sea, wind, and wealth. He married a mountain giantess who could not stand the sound of waves. They compromised and were miserable.
Primary Sources
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda / Gylfaginning (c. 1220)
- Skáldskaparmál (Prose Edda): Njord-Skaði marriage
- Tacitus, Germania 40 (98 CE): Nerthus, possibly a cognate
Related Beings
- Freyr (son)
- Freyja (daughter)
- Skaði (wife)
Njord lived at Nóatún, “Ship-enclosure,” by the sea. Snorri says he “rules the course of the wind and stills the sea and fire.” Sailors prayed to him. Fishermen prayed to him. Anyone who sought wealth could call on Njord, because abundance came from the sea.
The Marriage
After the gods killed the giant Þjazi, his daughter Skaði arrived in Asgard armed and demanding compensation. The gods offered her a husband, chosen by his feet alone. Skaði chose the most beautiful feet, expecting Baldr. They belonged to Njord. The sea god and the mountain giantess married.
They tried to compromise. Nine nights in Njord’s home by the sea, nine nights in Skaði’s home in the mountains. Njord could not sleep in the mountains. The howling of wolves kept him awake. Skaði could not sleep by the sea. The screaming of gulls drove her away. They separated. The story is domestic comedy told at the scale of gods.
Nerthus
Tacitus, in his Germania of 98 CE, describes a goddess called Nerthus worshipped by the Germanic peoples as “Mother Earth.” Her name is the feminine form of what would become Old Norse Njörðr. Whether Nerthus was Njord’s female predecessor, or a consort, or a different deity with a related name is debated. The gender shift from goddess to god between the first and thirteenth centuries is one of the more puzzling transformations in Germanic religion.