Skaði

After the Æsir killed the giant Þjazi, his daughter Skaði arrived at the gates of Asgard in helmet and mail, carrying weapons. She came for blood-price. The gods offered three things: a husband chosen by his feet, the placement of Þjazi’s eyes as stars in the sky, and something to make her laugh. Loki accomplished the last by tying a rope between a goat’s beard and his own genitals and playing tug-of-war until Skaði laughed. The scene reads differently now than it may have in the mead hall.

The Mountain

After the failed marriage to Njord, Skaði returned to Þrymheimr, her father’s mountain hall. She hunts on skis and carries a bow. Snorri calls her öndurgud, “ski-god,” and öndurdís, “ski-lady.” She is the only figure in Norse mythology defined by winter, mountains, and the hunt rather than by kinship or cosmic function.

The Name

Several scholars have proposed that the name “Scandinavia” derives from Skaði. The Latin Scandia and the Old Norse Skaðinawjō (“Skaði’s island” or “dangerous island”) may both trace to her. If correct, the entire peninsula carries the name of a giantess who preferred wolves howling in the mountains to gulls screaming by the sea.