Compendium · Mountain Giantess / Ski Goddess
Skaði
Skaði: the Norse giantess who came to Asgard armed and demanding justice. She chose a husband by his feet, got the wrong god, and went back to her mountains alone.
- Type
- Mountain Giantess / Ski Goddess
- Origin
- Norse
- Period
- Viking Age; compiled in Eddas (13th century)
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.
Sources
Bibliography. The same list is held in the article’s frontmatter for the citation tools that read it programmatically.
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda / Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál (c. 1220)
- Lokasenna (Poetic Edda): Loki insults Skaði
Primary Sources
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda / Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál (c. 1220)
- Lokasenna (Poetic Edda): Loki insults Skaði