The Gods were celebrating. Idun had returned to the hall and the giant Thjazi had been slain. This called for a great feast and celebration. There was mead and meat, cake and balloons. Well…maybe not balloons, but you get the idea.
Thor was on his 11th horn of mead when the doors to the hall burst open, and in stormed a giantess, armed to the teeth with as many weapons as she could carry. It was Skadi, come to seek revenge for the death of her father, Thjazi.
Thor was up and ready, mjolnir in hand. But Loki stood between them.
‘Skadi. Beautiful, young Skadi. Come, have a drink with us. Join the party’ said Loki.
‘Why would I do that?’ Asked Skadi ‘You killed my father’
‘Yes, that was a..er, misunderstanding. We have a gift….GIFTS for you though’
‘Gifts? For me? No one ever gives Skadi gifts.
Odin stepped forward, holding out his hands, open palmed, revealing Thjazi’s eyes. He cast them into the sky, where they became two stars, forever shining in the night sky. ‘Your father will forever be looking down, and watching over you.’
Next up several attempts were made by a number of the gods to make Skadi laugh, but she looked much less than impressed. That was until Loki grabbed a rope, tied one end to a goat and the other end to his, erm… manhood. What followed was one of the most painful games of tug of war that anyone has ever witnessed. Loki screamed and howled as he pulled and pulled until finally, he landed in Skadi’s lap.
Skadi snorted, then sniggered, before falling onto the floor in fits of laughter.
‘Right’ said Odin. ‘One last gift. You can marry one God, of your choosing’.
‘I choose Baldur then’ said Skadi
‘Not so fast, Skadi. I wasn’t finished. A God of your choosing – but you must pick by his feet alone’.
This will be easy thought Skadi, I can easily choose Baldur and his beautiful feet. ‘Fine’ she said.
The Gods all hid behind a curtain, with just their feet visible along the bottom.
One set of legs stood out from the rest. Beautiful, manly, muscular legs. ‘It’s him, my beautiful Baldur’ cried Skadi.
But it wasn’t. It was the sea god Njord.
‘You tricked me!’ cried Skadi
‘Be wise with yours words Skadi. You wouldn’t want your marriage to get off on the wrong FOOT’ laughed Loki.
And so it was that Skadi the giantess married Njord, god of the sea.
They lived for a while at Skadi’s home in the mountains. A place named Thrymhelm. But Njord could not stand the long, cold, dark nights. Most of all he loathed the sounds of the wolves howling in the night. And besides he missed his home beside the sea.
And so they moved to Noatun, Njords home beside the sea. But Skadi hated the cries of the seas birds, the warm, sunny weather and longed for her home in the mountains.
Eventually they agreed to disagree and went their separate ways.