Skaði

In Heimskringla, Skaði is described as having split up with Njörðr and as later having married the god Odin, and that the two produced many children together.

Scholars have theorized a potential connection between Skaði and the god Ullr (who is also associated with skiing), a particular relationship with the jötunn 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'.

The Old Norse name Skaði, along with Sca(n)dinavia and Skáney, may be related to Gothic skadus, Old English sceadu, Old Saxon scado, and Old High German scato (meaning 'shadow') - compare also the Irish Scáthach, 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 Dumézil disagrees with the notion of Scadin-avia as etymologically 'the island of the goddess Skaði'.

In the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, the god Odin (disguised as Grímnir) reveals to the young Agnarr the existence of twelve locations.

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 Skírnismál, the god Freyr has become heartsick for a fair girl (the jötunn Gerðr) he has spotted in Jötunheimr.

[6] In the prose introduction to the poem Lokasenna, Skaði is referred to as the wife of Njörðr and is cited as one of the goddesses attending Ægir's feast.

[9] In the poem Hyndluljóð, the female jötunn Hyndla tells the goddess Freyja various mythological genealogies.

In chapter 23 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, the enthroned figure of High details that Njörðr's wife is Skaði, that she is the daughter of the jötunn 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, when Njörðr returned from the mountains to Nóatún, he said: Skaði responded: The sources for these stanzas are not provided in the Prose Edda or elsewhere.

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] In chapter 56 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, 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.

[23] 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.

[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.

[25] Scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson proposes that Skaði's cult may have thrived in Hålogaland, 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.

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".

A moon of the planet Saturn (Skathi) and a mountain on Venus (Skadi Mons) are named after the goddess.