Skaði also known as Skaði Thiazzisdottir (Translation: Skaði, Daughter of Thiazzi) is a female Jötunn featured in God of War (2018). Is the Norse Goddess of Winter, Skiing, Bowhunting Mountains.
Norse Mythology[]
Skaði (also referred to as Skadi, Skade, or Skathi) is a Jötunn and Norse goddess that is associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains. In all sources, she is depicted as being the wife of the Vanir Njörðr. However, in Heimskringla, Skaði is described as having split up with Njörðr and has later married 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.
Þjazi, Skadi's shape-shifting father, was responsible for forcing the trickster god Loki into letting him kidnap Iðunn, Goddess of Youth, as well as stealing her magic apples of youth. Deprived off Iðunn's apples, the gods began to age, as they had lost their immortality. When they learned that Iðunn was last seen departing Asgard with Loki, they angrily threaten him with torture and death until he agree to rescue her. Borrowing a magical feathered cloak from the Goddess Freyja, Loki shape-shifted into a falcon and flew to Jötunheim. Upon arriving in Þjazi's home of Þrymheimr, he finds Iðunn alone. Loki turned her into a nut and carried her back to Asgard as fast as he could. Upon returning home, when Þjazi discovered that Iðunn is gone, he turned himself into an eagle and began chasing after Loki.
Back in Asgard, when the other gods saw Loki returning and with Þjazi right behind him, they built and lit a fire which burned Þjazi's feathers, which caused him to crash. Upon the ground, the gods killed him with no mercy. Skadi, upon learning that the gods had killed her father, put on her war gear and travelled to Asgard to seek vengeance.
Seeing the rage in Skaði, Odin and the other gods offered her compensation and atonement. When she provided them with terms of settlement, they agree to let her choose a husband from among them, but only by looking at their feet. When Skadi saw an attractive pair of feet, she chose the owner of that pair, thinking that it is Baldr. However, the owner of the feet turned out to be Njörðr, Vanir God of the Sea.
In addition, in her terms of settlement, Skadi has the gods do something that she thinks it's impossible to achieve; make her laugh. This was easily achieved when Loki tied each end of a cord to his testicles and to the beard of a nanny goat, and when Loki and the goat began to draw each other back and forth, this caused them to loudly squeal in pain. Eventually Loki fell into Skadi's lap, in which she burst into laughter, thus completing the atonement. To fulfill his compensation to Skadi, Odin places her father's eyes in the sky, turning them into stars.
Skaði then married Njörðr, however, it wouldn't last as Skaði couldn't live close to the sea, as she long to live in the mountains, while Njörðr couldn't live in Þrymheimr, as he desires to live near the sea.
In the God of War Series[]
Before God of War (2018)[]
Skaði learned how to hunt from her father, Thiazi, a shapeshifter. She became a huntress beyond compare, even to any god. Even the Jötnar Guardian, Laufey, admires her.
Odin wanted her to be his wife, believing she would give him strong sons. Skaði spurned his affections, and for this Odin vowed revenge, perceiving her rejection of him as an insult. He spread word about a giant Eagle that began to plague the Aesir and stealing Iðunn's golden apples, and that not even the finest archers among the Aesir could bring it down.
Odin knew Skaði could not resist the temptation to prove herself superior. Skaði hunted down the Eagle and shot it with a bow. When she went to collect her quarry, she found no Eagle but her own father slain. Skaði was overcome with grief and shame and succumbed to her fate as winter came, holding her father in an eternal embrace.
Shrine Story[]
Atreus: “Mimir, what can you tell me about the Giant lady with the bow?“
Mimir: “She was called Skaði, Queen of the Hunt. Her father was Thiazi, who could take the shape of any wild creature, and taught Skaði how to hunt them all. From the ribs of pack-beast, she fashioned second feet, allowing her to glide upon the snow so no animal could evade her. She became a huntress beyond compare, even to any God. Odin himself wanted her for his bride, believing she would bear him strong sons. But she spurned his affection... and for that insult, Odin vowed revenge. It was put fourth that the Aesir were plagued by an Eagle who would steal the precious golden apples of Iðunn. Not even the finest archer among the Gods could bring it down. Odin knew that Skaði could not resist the temptation to prove herself superior. And so she joined the hunt. Skaði tracked the Eagle as it flew where she alone could glide, and loosened an arrow from her unerring bow. When she collected her quarry, she found no Eagle at all, but her own father, poor Thiazi, slain by his own daughter. She was overcome with grief and shame for there is nothing nature so reviles as a child who kills their own parent. Skaði succumbed to her fate as Winter‘s blanket fell – holding her father as the mountain held her, in an embrace to last eternity.”
Atreus: “Well, that was sad.”
Mimir: “Aye. There aren’t many happy endings for the Giants, I’m afraid.”
Trivia[]
- Skaði is the second Jötunn Odin is known to have desired, the other was Fjörgyn.
- Since the revelation in Ragnarok that she was part of Njörd's family, it can be presumed that she refused Odin because she was a married woman.
- Her Greek equivalent is Artemis (as queen of the hunt).
- Freya's family crest confirmed that Skaði was part of her family.
- It's possible that Skaði is still alive since her father Thiazzi is one of the Giants who's soul exists within Angrboda's spiritual stones indicating Skaði transferred his soul into a stone before his death to save him. This means Skaði must've returned to Jötunheim in contradiction to the mural's claims that she and Thiazzi died together in the snow. This further implies that Skaði could've either sealed her own soul within one of Angrboda's stones or was among the Giants who left Midgard that Atreus is currently searching for.
- Stalkers are said to be worshippers of Skaði.
- In some versions, Skadi is the mother of Freyr and Freya, but in God of War Series the mother of Freyr and Freya is Nerthus.
Gallery[]
