Skadi

A frost-giantess. Skadi was the beautiful daughter of the giant Thiassi (Thiazi), from the mountain of Thryheim.

Skadi was about to go to war against the Aesir when the gods killed her father. The Aesir made peace with Skadi, on the condition that one of them could make her laugh and that she had her choice of a husband among the Aesir.

Loki easily made her laugh, but the choice of husband proved to be a little more difficult. Skadi had to choose her new husband by his feet. She thought she was choosing beautiful Balder when she chose the god with beautiful feet. Instead, her new husband was Njörd (Njord).

The marriage did not last long because Njörd preferred to live in Noatun by the sea, while Skadi preferred her mountain home in Thrymheim, so they divorced. Sometimes, Skaldi was mistaken as the mother of Freyr and Freyja. Skaldi was usually described as their stepmother.

Skadi was later married to another Aesir god named Ull. However, in the Ynglinga Saga, Snorri Sturluson wrote that when Skadi remarried, she married Odin, not Ull, and supposedly had many children with Odin.

Like Gerd and some other giantesses, Skaldi became a goddess and an Asyniur. Skadi became the goddess of mountains, or of skiing and snowshoes.

See Apples of Youth.