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Skadi

Daughter of the giant Thjazi, "Skathi" in Bellows, who lives in her father's hall Thrymheim as "the god's fair bride"; she answers Loki in Lokasenna with a cold counsel from her fields and recalls that the gods will bind him with his son's bowels; counted among the goddesses though a giantess by birth.

Why this wins its question: Restricts Skadi to what the poems say and marks the famous stories (the choice of a husband by his feet, the nine nights by the sea) as absent from them.

Key takeaways

  • Thjazi's daughter (Hyndluljoth 32), keeping Thjazi's hall (Grimnismol 11) — a giantess who counts as a goddess.
  • Her marriage to Njord is not in the stanzas; "the god's fair bride" is as far as the Poetic Edda goes.
  • Her enmity with Loki is over her father's death, and she is the one who names Loki's punishment (Lokasenna 49).

Claims

Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.

  1. Skadi is the daughter of the giant Thjazi: "To these as well was Thjazi kin, / The dark-loving giant; his daughter was Skathi" (Hyndluljoth 32).

    confidence 0.95The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri · primary

  2. She keeps her father's home: "The sixth is Thrymheim, where Thjazi dwelt ... Now Skathi abides, the god's fair bride, / In the home that her father had" (Grimnismol 11). The god is not named in the stanza.

    confidence 0.93The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri · primary

  3. In Lokasenna she foretells Loki's binding — "On the rocks the gods bind thee with bowels torn / Forth from thy frost-cold son" — and Loki replies that he was "first and last at the deadly fight / There where Thjazi we caught"; she answers that "From my dwellings and fields shall ever come forth / A counsel cold for thee" (Lokasenna 49–51). The speaker is identified by the reference to Thjazi and the stanza order.

    confidence 0.88The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri · primary

  4. Loki's last word to her is that she once invited him to her bed (Lokasenna 52) — the poems' only hint of any tie between them.

    confidence 0.85The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri · primary

  5. Thjazi's killing is told by Harbarth, not by Thor: "Thjazi I felled, the giant fierce, / And I hurled the eyes of Alvaldi's son / To the heavens hot above" (Harbarthsljoth 19), while Loki claims a share of the same fight (Lokasenna 50).

    confidence 0.9The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri · primary

Questions answered

Who is Skadi's father?
Skadi is the daughter of the giant Thjazi: "To these as well was Thjazi kin, / The dark-loving giant; his daughter was Skathi" (Hyndluljoth 32). source
Where does Skadi live?
She keeps her father's home: "The sixth is Thrymheim, where Thjazi dwelt ... Now Skathi abides, the god's fair bride, / In the home that her father had" (Grimnismol 11). The god is not named in the stanza. source
What does Skadi say to Loki?
In Lokasenna she foretells Loki's binding — "On the rocks the gods bind thee with bowels torn / Forth from thy frost-cold son" — and Loki replies that he was "first and last at the deadly fight / There where Thjazi we caught"; she answers that "From my dwellings and fields shall ever come forth / A counsel cold for thee" (Lokasenna 49–51). The speaker is identified by the reference to Thjazi and the stanza order. source
Who is Skadi's husband?
She keeps her father's home: "The sixth is Thrymheim, where Thjazi dwelt ... Now Skathi abides, the god's fair bride, / In the home that her father had" (Grimnismol 11). The god is not named in the stanza. source