Welcome to Skadi's Winter Wonderland

As we move toward the cold darkness of winter, we enter the dark Goddess Skadi’s realm. Skadi is the Viking Goddess of winter. Her name is said to mean shadow or shade. She is the Queen of the shades.
She is a huntress, a dark magician, a giantess Goddess, ruling especially over mountains, wilderness, winter, revenge, knowledge, damage, justice, and independence. It is said that she gifted hunters with the bow and the skill to use it. The scythe, wolves and venomous snakes are sacred to her. Also sacred to her are skates, skis and snowshoes. She often did her hunting while on skis. All of Scandinavia is named after the Goddess Skadi, and she is said to dwell in the high snow-covered mountains there.
Skadi is the daughter of the giant Thiazi. Her father Thiazi kidnapped the Idunn, Goddess of youth, and then was killed by the Aesir who came to rescue the Youth Goddess.
At the news of his death, Skadi was full of rage. She put on her shining armor and her weapons and strode across Bifrost to Asgard, the home of the Aesir. Skadi then went after the Aesir to get revenge for the death of her father.
The gods were at peace, glad to feel young again now that Idunn was back with her magic apples of youth. They asked Skadi if she would take gold in payment for her father’s death, for such was the custom of the Norse.
Skadi scornfully replied that she had all the gold she needed. When Olvaldi had died, he had left much gold to his sons, Thjazzi, Gang, and Idi, and now she had Thjazzi’s entire share. Instead, she demanded a husband from among the gods.
The gods conferred and agreed it would be wise to let the icy giantess have her way. There was one condition: Skadi must choose her husband by the look of his feet, not by his face. Skadi agreed, but she, too, had a condition. The gods must make her laugh, for she was full of rage and her heart was cold.
The strange bargain was struck, and the gods stood barefoot behind a curtain that hid all but their feet. One pair of feet at once struck Skadi as more beautiful than the rest. They must belong to the beautiful god Balder, she thought. She announced her choice.
Out stepped Njord, the Vanir God of the Seas and of Seafarers, and the father of Frey and Freya. Skadi was disappointed apparently Balder is one of type of people who have a handsome face but ugly feet. 
Bitterly, she asked the gods to make her laugh. Loki, the trickster god who had been partially responsible for Thjazzi’s death, had to set his quick mind to work as soon as he had heard Skadi’s requests. Now he led forward one of Thor’s rambunctious goats, and the two played such lively and hilarious antics that Skadi and all the gods laughed until their sides ached.
As a wedding present for Skadi, Odin took Thjazzi’s eyes from his pouch and hurled them into the heavens, where they shone brightly as twin stars. Njord took his new wife to his home, Noatun, by the seashore. Skadi did not like the sunshine, the sea, the sound of the waves, or those damn gulls. Njord then went with Skadi to Thrymheim, her sunless, freezing mountain home, but Njord did not like the howling of the wolves, the cold wind, the bare mountains, or the terrible cold.
The two tried to divide their time between the two homes: nine days in Njord’s Noatun and nine in Skadi’s Thrymheim. 
So she left. When she was out hunting with her wolves one day, she ran into Ulle, the Aesir god of Winter, Archery and Skiers. They fell in love and were soon married.Skadi spent more and more time in the cold mountains, a dark shape speeding over the snow in her snowshoes, bringing death to wolves and bears from her quiver full of arrows. She is the Goddess of Skiers and Hunters.
Worshipers of the Goddess Skadi 

Comments

  1. Ray's CowboyDecember 19, 2011 at 5:45 AM

    Thanks for the info. I really do enjoy it.. Second thanks for the HOT Men that might be melting that snow.

    WOOF
    Ray

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

History of Homosexual: Ancient Greece

Image
How we from being happily accept in society to being hate and have to fight for equality? Let start begin in the ancient world work our way to the source of the problem. The Ancient Greece "The noble lover of beauty engages in love wherever he sees excellence and splendid natural endowment without regard for any difference in physiological detail." - Plutarch The ancient Greeks are widely known for their gay exploits. Many people are aware of Greek homosexual love poetry, the same-sex relations of Greek gods and heroes, and the gay relationship between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion. It is important in the beginning to define our vocabulary. The term ’homosexuality’ as it is used and understood today is not mainly applicable to Greek of ancient times for three reasons: First of all, most Greeks were bisexual. Second, homosexuality and 'gay' as sexual identities are recent developments. They were emerged only in the 2Oth Century (our idea of what i...
Please read more »

Seven Wonders of the World: Colossus of Rhodes

Image
Travelers to the New York City harbor see a marvelous sight. Standing on a small island in the harbor is an immense statue of a robed woman, holding a book and lifting a torch to the sky. It is sometimes referred to as the "Modern Colossus," but more often called the Statue of Liberty. This awe-inspiring statue was a gift from France to America and is easily recognized by people around the world. What many visitors to this shrine to freedom don't know is that the statue, the "Modern Colossus," is the echo of another statue, the original colossus, which stood over two thousand years ago at the entrance to another busy harbor on the Island of Rhodes. In the late 4th century BC, Rhodes, allied with Ptolemy I of Egypt, prevented a massive invasion staged by their common enemy, Antigonus I Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius. In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Antigonus's army abandoned the siege, leaving most of their siege equi...
Please read more »

Daily life of Roman life: Slavery

Image
Slavery had a long history in the ancient world and was practiced in Ancient Egypt and Greece, as well as Rome. Most slaves during the Roman Empire were foreigners and, unlike in modern times, Roman slavery was not based on race. Slaves were considered property under Roman law and had no legal personhood. Unlike Roman citizens, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation (prostitutes were often slaves), torture, and summary execution. The testimony of a slave could not be accepted in a court of law unless the slave was tortured—a practice based on the belief that slaves in a position to be privy to their masters' affairs would be too virtuously loyal to reveal damaging evidence unless coerced (yeah right). Over time, however, slaves gained increased legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters. How did people become Roman Slaves? People became slaves among the Romans by the following ways: Prisoners of war Sailors ...
Please read more »