Skadi
Skadi ( Old Norse Skaði ), or Skade, is the goddess of hunting and winter in Norse mythology , after which Scandinavia is possibly named.
After the gods killed her father Thiazi , she traveled to Asgard to atone for his death. She demanded a husband and that she be made to laugh. The first request was granted to her on the condition that she should choose her future son only on the basis of his feet. So Skadi chose Njörðr on the basis of his feet, although she hoped for Balder . The second request was granted by Loki , who made her laugh with a goat. He tied his testicles to the goat's beard with a ribbon and began a kind of "tug of war". Overwhelmed by the silly sight, Skadi burst into laughter. So that it was with the Asen reconciled. Odin himself did penance by casting her father's eyes to the sky, where from then on they sparkled as two stars.
The marriage with Njörðr did not go well - Skadi loved the mountains, Njörd the sea. So they agreed to spend 9 nights in one place, but this solution was unsuccessful. Skadi was bothered by the screaming of sea birds, Njord by the howling of wolves. So Skadi went back to Thrymheim , where she liked to hunt with the bow.
Later she fastened a venomous snake over Loki's head, as he insulted her in vicious diatribes. With Odin she is said to have fathered the Norwegian king Säming .
Since Skadi is also called »ski goddess« (öndurdís) by the skalds , while the god Ullr is »ski god« (önduráss), it is assumed that both were a couple, either siblings or a married couple, but there is no literary evidence for this assumption .
literature
- Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X .
