Skadi’s Winter Gaze

After staying with Skadi in her snowy mountain home, her husband Njord, the sea-god said:

“Loath were the hills to me, I was not long in them,
Nights only nine;
To me the wailing of, wolves seemed ill,
After the song of swans.”

Skaði responded:

“Sleep could I never, on the sea-beds,
For the wailing of waterfowl;
He wakens me, who comes from the deep--
The sea-mew every morn.”

“Then Skadi went up onto the mountain, and dwelt in Thrymheimr [her mountain home].”

-Gylfaginning Chapter 23, Brodeur translation

Skadi is a Viking goddess of winter, snow shoes, hunting, and the mountains. Her husband hated the call of wolves, so we must assume that in contrast she loved them. She is a free spirit, and one that many modern women identify with. She famously placed the serpent above Loki’s head during his punishment; and there is an implication that the two of them were involved romantically in some way. Later sources also mention that she had children with Odin.

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