↟ Skaði – The mythical goddess of the Scandinavian Wilderness.

❄️ Skaði hunts in the mountains of Scandes with a bow and cross-country skis, and is sometimes associated with the winter dís. She’s living among frost giants in Trymheim and Jotunheim, and the giant Tjasse is her father. In Norse mythology the story goes that she came to Asgard to avenge her father – the giant Tjasse who was killed by the gods of Asgard. Instead of revenge the gods offered her a compensation – she would marry one of them. To do so, she had to choose by looking at their feet while they’re lined up behind a cloth.

❄️ Skaði wanted to marry the god of light Baldr, and thought that the most beautiful feet must be his. But it was not, those feet belonged to the god of the sea; Njord. The marriage was not successful, Njord wanted to live by the sea in his dwelling Noatun. Skaði wanted to live in the mountains and hear the wolves howling at their Trymheim. They agreed to stay nine nights at each place but eventually they lived separately.

❄️ The death of Skaði’s father was caused by Loki, Odin and Höner. They were travelling through Scandinavia and had hunted down a musk ox, which they were cooking over an open fire. Then Tjasse (in Eagle form) stole half of the ox and Loki tried to hit him with a pole from the fire which stuck on Tjasse’s back. Eventually, Odin and the others killed him. This scene is described in Tjodolf by Hvins drapa ‘Haustlang’ long before the Edda was written, and are depicted on a rock carving from Lökeberget in Bohuslän, Sweden from 1100 BC.