In looking at my blog stats, I’ve noticed that summer that my page on Skadi consistently gets the most hits and the most searches of any one other topic here in the grove. Maybe that’s because it’s summer and people’s thoughts invariably turn to winter when it’s hot out. But I think maybe it’s more than that.

I’ve said in my previous posts that I’m a feminist, an environmentalist, and a progressive. So it goes without saying that I’m in favor of women’s and human rights, and peace. Personally, I’m also sort of an eternal seeker of knowledge. In other words, a life-long student. And part of what interests me about humanity and the planet is cultural diversity.

I’m pretty enmeshed in my own culture: that of a Scandinavian American. I’m 5/8 Norwegian, 1/4 Swedish, and 1/8 Danish. So unless someone way back on the family tree married someone of other ethnic descent (go back far enough and this is a certainty, not a possibility), that makes me pretty damn Scandinavian. It’s also part of the reason why I was drawn to Norse Paganism. Scandinavians in general are pretty proud of their Vikings (however inaccurate most American ideas of them are) and this includes the sagas and myths. But part of me also wishes I was a bit more of a mutt, so I’d have a “legitimate” claim and also perhaps more of a social background in other cultures: Celtic, Balto-Russian, French, Italian, Native plainsfolk here on the Upper Midwest, French-Canadian, etc. In this day and age, with racial and cultural divides still present (if ever-narrowing), I feel that without some sort of claim of heritage, I can never fully participate in these cultures.

And this is where Skadi comes in. I’ve never thought of it before, but I realize now that her tale is indicative of Viking tendencies that were relatively free of racism. Not of class conflicts, to be sure, and there was certainly a sort of fierce nationalism (the early tribes of Norway and Sweden were always fighting amongst themselves, and there seemed to be a general disdain for Finns/Saami, who may or may not be the same people).  But Skadi’s tell also illustrates how Viking society could be tolerant and inclusive and multi-cultural.

We know that the Vikings were just pirates of a sort, they also settled in diverse areas such as Ireland (they founded Dublin), Scotland and the Orkneys (ditto with York), the Faero Islands, Iceland, Greenland, as well as northern France, the Baltic States, and even down into Constantinople and for a short time, North America. They didn’t just (as early Scandinavian immigrants to America did) create their own little insular Viking communities. They, much like the French fur traders of the 18th and 19th centuries in North America, married native women, had children, and integrated ethnic traditions, politics, and religious beliefs.

Skadi is an example of this tolerance in that she was once an outsider. As a giant and a daughter of Thiazzi, who stole Idun and jeopardized the immortality of the Gods, she was an enemy. But she was appeased by a good laugh (Loki, who wittily tied his testacles to a goat, that promptly took off running) and a choice of mate among the Gods. By (unwittingly) choosing Njord (God of the Sea and also fertility, father of Freya and Frey, and one of the Vanir), she cemented the appeasement and became a Goddess in her own right (as did Gerd, another giantess turned Goddess, by marriage to Frey).

Although, now that I think about it, only Vanir Gods married giantesses (Njord and Frey), who were themselves integrated in to Aesir society. And even though Skadi was appeased, the war with the giants continued. And her marriage to Njord didn’t seem to work out that well; mountains vs. sea and all that.

Damn, perhaps this is instead a cautionary tale? No, I refuse to believe that, since there was no in-fighting, and the Vanir were perhaps more popular (or at the very least, just as) as the Aesir, only different. And Skadi and Gerd became powerful Goddesses in their own right.

Skadi represents something quite different from the other Goddesses. She is both wilder and more fierce than Freya, but she seems just as level-headed as Frigg. She is, in my mind, a huntress and therefore a warrior, but not a foolish one, nor one bent on glory (unlike most of the men in Viking times). She seems the epitome of the strong, independent “wild women” that feminists are always talking about. She’s the Goddess of Winter, but she is not a crone, she got married, but at the very least separated (if not actually divorced, since there is no evidence to say so). She’s strong and independent, but wise and fairly good-humored. I’d have to go back and look at the Eddas, but if memory serves me right, she was the voice of reason in a few of the tales.

She’s also mysterious. We know nothing of her life before joining the Vanir and Aesir. We don’t know if her father Thiazzi was a brute to her or if she loved him. We barely know anything about her after she becomes a Goddess except that she had the hots for Balder and doesn’t like the sound of seagulls crying. Oh, and that she really likes her mountains. So much so, that she’d essentially give up her marriage to live there. Well, sort of, she apparently spends nine days with Njord and nine days in the mountains (and why couldn’t Njord go to the mountains? I don’t know).

So here she is, Goddess of Winter (in all its peace and fury), and she’s level-headed enough to be appeased by the Gods, but hotheaded enough to go to them to demand retribution. As a giantess, she’s technically an outcast, but becomes accepted by the Vanir and Aesir. She’s a young woman in the role of Goddess of Winter, one that in other cultures is attributed to old men (and also old women).

So what I’m trying to say here is that Skadi, contradiction that she is, represents the tolerant and peace-making tendencies of a society that places a great deal of importance on warriors, combat, and men. So maybe we should look to her as an example of balance and strength in a patriarchal, racist world?

Just a thought.

Other Norse Goddesses have underlying feminist tendencies, but that’s another post.