Norse goddess
In
Norse mythology
,
Skaði
(
;
Old Norse
:
[?sk?ðe]
; sometimes anglicized as
Skadi
,
Skade
, or
Skathi
) is a
jotunn
and
goddess
associated with
bowhunting
,
skiing
, winter, and mountains. Skaði is attested in the
Poetic Edda
, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the
Prose Edda
and in
Heimskringla
, written in the 13th century by
Snorri Sturluson
, and in the works of
skalds
.
Skaði is the daughter of the deceased
Þjazi
, and Skaði married the god
Njorðr
as part of the compensation provided by the gods for killing her father Þjazi. In
Heimskringla
, Skaði is described as having split up with Njorðr and as later having married the god
Odin
, and that the two produced many children together. In both the
Poetic Edda
and the
Prose Edda
, Skaði is responsible for placing the serpent that drips venom onto the bound
Loki
. Skaði is alternately referred to as
Ondurguð
(Old Norse 'ski god') and
Ondur
dis
(Old Norse 'ski
dis
').
The etymology of the name
Skaði
is uncertain, but may be connected with the original form of
Scandinavia
. Some place names in Scandinavia refer to Skaði. Scholars have theorized a potential connection between Skaði and the god
Ullr
(who is also associated with skiing), a particular relationship with the jotunn Loki, and that
Scandinavia
may be related to the name Skaði (potentially meaning 'Skaði's island') or the name may be connected to Old Norse nouns meaning either 'shadow' or 'harm'. Skaði has inspired various works of art.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The
Old Norse
name
Skaði
, along with
Sca(n)dinavia
and
Skaney
, may be related to
Gothic
skadus
,
Old English
sceadu
,
Old Saxon
scado
, and
Old High German
scato
(meaning 'shadow') - compare also the Irish
Scathach
, a famous woman warrior known as 'the shadowy one'. Scholar John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld.
[1]
Georges Dumezil
disagrees with the notion of
Scadin-avia
as etymologically 'the island of the goddess Skaði'. Dumezil comments that the first element
Scadin
must have had?or once had?a connection to "darkness" "or something else we cannot be sure of". Dumezil says that, rather, the name
Skaði
derives from the name of the geographical region, which was at the time no longer completely understood. In connection, Dumezil points to a parallel in
Eriu
, a goddess personifying
Ireland
that appears in some Irish texts, whose name he says comes from
Ireland
rather than the other way around.
[2]
Alternatively,
Skaði
may be connected with the Old Norse noun
skaði
('harm'),
[3]
source of the Icelandic and Faroese
skaði
('harm, damage') and
cognate
with English
scathe
(
unscathed
,
scathing
).
[4]
Attestations
[
edit
]
Skaði is attested in poems found in the
Poetic Edda
, in two books of the
Prose Edda
and in one
Heimskringla
book.
Poetic Edda
[
edit
]
In the
Poetic Edda
poem
Grimnismal
, the god
Odin
(disguised as
Grimnir
) reveals to the young
Agnarr
the existence of twelve locations. Odin mentions the location
Þrymheimr
sixth in a single stanza. In the stanza, Odin details that the jotunn
Þjazi
once lived there, and that now his daughter Skaði does. Odin describes Þrymheimr as consisting of "ancient courts" and refers to Skaði as "the shining bride of the gods".
[5]
In the prose introduction to the poem
Skirnismal
, the god
Freyr
has become heartsick for a fair girl (the jotunn
Gerðr
) he has spotted in
Jotunheimr
. The god
Njorðr
asks Freyr's servant
Skirnir
to talk to Freyr, and in the first stanza of the poem, Skaði also tells Skirnir to ask Freyr why he is so upset. Skirnir responds that he expects harsh words from their son Freyr.
[6]
In the prose introduction to the poem
Lokasenna
, Skaði is referred to as the wife of Njorðr and is cited as one of the goddesses attending
Ægir
's feast.
[7]
After
Loki
has an exchange with the god
Heimdallr
, Skaði interjects. Skaði tells Loki that he is "light-hearted" and that Loki will not be "playing [...] with [his] tail wagging free" for much longer, for soon the gods will bind Loki to a sharp rock with the ice-cold entrails of his son. Loki responds that, even if this is so, he was "first and foremost" at the killing of Þjazi. Skaði responds that, if this is so, "baneful advice" will always flow from her "
sanctuaries
and plains". Loki responds that Skaði was more friendly in speech when Skaði was in his bed?an accusation he makes to most of the goddesses in the poem and is not attested elsewhere. Loki's
flyting
then turns to the goddess
Sif
.
[8]
In the prose section at the end of
Lokasenna
, the gods catch Loki and bind him with the innards of his son
Nari
, while they turn his son
Vali
into a wolf. Skaði places a
venomous
snake above Loki's face. Venom drips from the snake and Loki's wife
Sigyn
sits and holds a basin beneath the serpent, catching the venom. When the basin is full, Sigyn must empty it, and during that time the snake venom falls onto Loki's face, causing him to writhe in a tremendous fury, so much so that all
earthquakes
stem from Loki's writhings.
[9]
In the poem
Hyndluljoð
, the female jotunn Hyndla tells the goddess
Freyja
various mythological genealogies. In one stanza, Hyndla notes that Þjazi "loved to shoot" and that Skaði was his daughter.
[10]
Prose Edda
[
edit
]
In the
Prose Edda
, Skaði is attested in two books:
Gylfaginning
and
Skaldskaparmal
.
Gylfaginning
[
edit
]
In chapter 23 of the
Prose Edda
book
Gylfaginning
, the enthroned figure of
High
details that Njorðr's wife is Skaði, that she is the daughter of the jotunn Þjazi, and recounts a tale involving the two. High recalls that Skaði wanted to live in the home once owned by her father called Þrymheimr. However, Njorðr wanted to live nearer to the sea. Subsequently, the two made an agreement that they would spend
nine
nights in Þrymheimr and then the next three nights in Njorðr's sea-side home
Noatun
(or nine winters in Þrymheimr and another nine in Noatun according to the
Codex Regius
.
[11]
). However, when Njorðr returned from the mountains to Noatun, he said:
- "Hateful for me are the mountains,
- I was not long there,
- only nine nights.
- The howling of the wolves
- sounded ugly to me
- after the song of the swans."
[12]
Skaði responded:
- "Sleep I could not
- on the sea beds
- for the screeching of the bird.
- That gull wakes me
- when from the wide sea
- he comes each morning."
[12]
The sources for these stanzas are not provided in the
Prose Edda
or elsewhere. High says that afterward Skaði went back up to the mountains and lived in Þrymheimr, and there Skaði often travels on skis, wields a bow, and shoots wild animals. High notes that Skaði is also referred to as "ski god" (Old Norse
Ondurgud
) or Ondurdis and the "ski lady" (
Ondurdis
). In support, the above-mentioned stanza from the
Poetic Edda
poem
Grimnismal
is cited.
[11]
In the next chapter (24), High says that "after this", Njorðr "had two children": Freyr and Freyja. The name of the mother of the two children is not provided here.
[13]
At the end of chapter 51 of
Gylfaginning
, High describes how the gods caught and bound Loki. Skaði is described as having taken a venomous snake and fastening it above the bound Loki, so that the venom may drip on to Loki's face. Loki's wife Sigyn sat by his side and caught the venom in a bowl. But when the bowl becomes full, she must leave to empty it, and then Loki is burned by the acidic liquid and he writhes in extreme pain, causing the earth to shake and resulting in what we know as an earthquake.
[14]
Skaldskaparmal
[
edit
]
In chapter 56 of the
Prose Edda
book
Skaldskaparmal
,
Bragi
recounts to
Ægir
how the gods killed Þjazi. Þjazi's daughter, Skaði, took a helmet, a coat of mail, and "all weapons of war" and traveled to
Asgard
, the home of the gods. Upon Skaði's arrival, the gods wished to atone for her loss and offered compensation. Skaði provides them with her terms of settlement, and the gods agree that Skaði may choose a husband from among themselves. However, Skaði must choose this husband by looking solely at their feet. Skaði saw a pair of feet that she found particularly attractive and said "I choose that one; there can be little that is ugly about Baldr." However, the owner of the feet turned out to be Njorðr.
[15]
Skaði also included in her terms of settlement that the gods must do something she thought impossible for them to do: make her laugh. To do so, Loki tied one end of a cord around the beard of a
nanny goat
and the other end around his
testicles
. The goat and Loki drew one another back and forth, both squealing loudly. Loki dropped into Skaði's lap, and Skaði laughed, completing this part of her atonement. Finally, in compensation to Skaði, Odin took Þjazi's eyes, plunged them into the sky, and from the eyes made two stars.
[15]
Further in
Skaldskaparmal
, a work by the
skald
Þorðr Sjareksson
is quoted. The poem refers to Skaði as "the wise god-bride" and notes that she "could not love the
Van
". Prose below the quote clarifies that this is a reference to Skaði's leaving of Njorðr.
[16]
In chapter 16, names for Loki are given, including "wrangler of Heimdall and Skaði".
[17]
In chapter 22, Skaði is referenced in the 10th century poem
Haustlong
where the skald
Þjoðolfr of Hvinir
refers to an
ox
as "bow-string-
Var
's [Skaði's] whale".
[18]
In chapter 23, the skald
Bragi Boddason
refers to Þjazi as the "father of the ski-dis".
[19]
In chapter 32, Skaði is listed among six goddesses who attend a party held by Ægir.
[20]
In chapter 75, Skaði is included among a list of 27
asynjur
names.
[21]
Heimskringla
[
edit
]
In chapter 8 of the
Heimskringla
book
Ynglinga saga
, Skaði appears in an
euhemerized
account. This account details that Skaði had once married Njorðr but that she would not have sex with him, and that later Skaði married Odin. Skaði and Odin had "many sons". Only one of the names of these sons is provided:
Sæmingr
, a king of
Norway
. Two stanzas are presented by the
skald
Eyvindr skaldaspillir
in reference. In the first stanza, Skaði is described as a jotunn and a "fair maiden". A portion of the second stanza is missing. The second stanza reads:
- Of sea-bones,
- and sons many
- the ski-goddess
- gat with Othin
[22]
Lee Hollander
explains that "bones-of-the-sea" is a
kenning
for "rocks", and believes that this defective stanza undoubtedly referred to Skaði as a "dweller of the rocks" in connection with her association with mountains and skiing.
[22]
Theories
[
edit
]
Volsunga saga
[
edit
]
Another figure by the name of Skaði who appears in the first chapter of
Volsunga saga
. In the chapter, this Skaði?who is male?is the owner of a
thrall
by the name of
Breði
. Another man,
Sigi
?a
son of Odin
?went hunting one winter with the thrall. Sigi and the thrall Breði hunted throughout the day until evening, when they compared their kills. Sigi saw that the thrall's kills outdid his own, and so Sigi killed Breði and buried Breði's corpse in a
snowdrift
.
[13]
That night, Sigi returned home and claimed that Breði had ridden out into the forest, that he had lost sight of Breði, and that he furthermore did not know what became of the thrall. Skaði doubted Sigi's explanation, suspected that Sigi was lying, and that Sigi had instead killed Breði. Skaði gathered men together to look for Breði and the group eventually found the corpse of Breði in a snowdrift. Skaði declared that henceforth the snowdrift should be called "Breði's drift," and ever since then people have referred to large snow drifts by that name. The fact that Sigi murdered Breði was evident, and so Sigi was considered an outlaw. Led by Odin, Sigi leaves the land, and Skaði is not mentioned again in the saga.
[13]
Scholar
Jesse Byock
notes that the goddess Skaði is also associated with winter and hunting, and that the episode in
Volsunga saga
involving the male Skaði, Sigi, and Breði has been theorized as stemming from an otherwise lost myth.
[23]
Other
[
edit
]
Scholar
John Lindow
comments that the episode in
Gylfaginning
detailing Loki's antics with a goat may have associations with castration and a ritual involving making a goddess laugh. Lindow notes that Loki and Skaði appear to have had a special relationship, an example being Skaði's placement of the snake over Loki's face in
Lokasenna
and
Gylfaginning.
[24]
Due to their shared association with skiing and the fact that both place names referring to Ullr and Skaði appear most frequently in Sweden, some scholars have proposed a particular connection between the two gods.
[24]
On the other hand,
Skaði
may potentially be a masculine form and, as a result, some scholars have theorized that Skaði may have originally been a male deity.
[25]
Scholar
Hilda Ellis Davidson
proposes that Skaði's cult may have thrived in
Halogaland
, a province in northern
Norway
, because "she shows characteristics of the
Sami people
, who were renowned for skiing, shooting with the bow and hunting; her separation from Njord might point to a split between her cult and that of the
Vanir
in this region, where Scandinavians and the Sami were in close contact."
[26]
Modern influence
[
edit
]
Modern works of art depicting Skaði include
Skadi und Niurd
(illustration, 1883) by K. Ehrenberg and
Skadi
(1901) by
Emil Doepler the Younger
. Skaði also appears in
Adam Oehlenschlager
's poem (1819)
Skades Giftermaal
.
[27]
Art deco
depictions of both the god
Ullr
(1928) and Skaði (1929) appear on covers of the Swedish ski annual
Pa Skidor
, both skiing and wielding bows. E. John B. Allen notes that the deities are portrayed in a manner that "give[s] historical authority to this most important of Swedish ski journals, which began publication in 1893".
[28]
A
moon of the planet Saturn
(
Skathi
) and a
mountain on Venus
(
Skadi Mons
) are named after the goddess.
[29]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
McKinnell (2005:63).
- ^
Dumezil (1973:35).
- ^
Davidson (1993:62).
- ^
"scathe"
.
Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary
. Merriam-Webster.
Archived
from the original on 28 March 2018
. Retrieved
25 February
2014
.
Middle English
skathe
, from Old Norse
skathi
; akin to Old English
sceatha
'injury', Greek
ask?th?s
'unharmed'
- ^
Larrington (1999:53).
- ^
Larrington (1999:61).
- ^
Larrington (1999:84).
- ^
Larrington (1999:93, 276).
- ^
Larrington (1999:95?96).
- ^
Larrington (1999:257).
- ^
a
b
Byock (2006:141)
- ^
a
b
Byock (2006:33?34).
- ^
a
b
c
Byock (2006:35).
- ^
Byock (2006:70).
- ^
a
b
Faulkes (1995:61).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:75).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:77).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:87).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:89).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:95).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:157).
- ^
a
b
Hollander (2007:12).
- ^
Byock (1990:111).
- ^
a
b
Lindow (2001:268?270).
- ^
Davidson (1993:61).
- ^
Davidson (1993:61?62).
- ^
Simek (2007:287).
- ^
Allen (2007:16).
- ^
"Skadi Mons"
.
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
.
Archived
from the original on 16 September 2019
. Retrieved
21 March
2016
.
General and cited references
[
edit
]
- Allen, E. John B. (2007).
The Culture and Sport of Skiing
. Amherst, Mass.:
University of Massachusetts Press
.
ISBN
1-55849-601-7
.
- Byock, Jesse (trans.) (1990).
The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer
.
University of California Press
.
ISBN
978-0-520-23285-3
.
- Byock, Jesse (trans.) (2006).
The Prose Edda
.
Penguin Classics
.
ISBN
0-14-044755-5
.
- Davidson, Hilda Ellis
(1993).
The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe
.
Routledge
.
ISBN
0-203-40850-0
.
- Dumezil, Georges (1973).
From Myth to Fiction: the Saga of Hadingus
.
University of Chicago Press
.
ISBN
0-226-16972-3
.
- Faulkes, Anthony (trans.) (1995).
Edda
.
Everyman
.
ISBN
0-460-87616-3
.
- Hollander, Lee Milton (trans.) (2007).
Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway
(
Archived
26 January 2017 at the
Wayback Machine
).
University of Texas Press
.
ISBN
978-0-292-73061-8
- Larrington, Carolyne (trans.) (1999).
The Poetic Edda
.
Oxford World's Classics
.
ISBN
0-19-283946-2
.
- Lindow, John
(2001).
Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
(
Archived
26 January 2017 at the
Wayback Machine
).
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
0-19-515382-0
.
- McKinnell, John (2005).
Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend
.
D.S. Brewer
.
ISBN
1-84384-042-1
.
- Simek, Rudolf
(2007).
Dictionary of Northern Mythology
. Translated by Angela Hall.
D.S. Brewer
.
ISBN
0-85991-513-1
.
External links
[
edit
]
- Media related to
Skaði
at Wikimedia Commons
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