Editing Skaði (section)

==Etymology==
The [[Old Norse]] name ''Skaði'', along with ''[[Scandinavia|Sca(n)dinavia]]'' and ''[[Scania|Skáney]]'', may be related to [[Gothic language|Gothic]] ''skadus'', [[Old English]] ''sceadu'', [[Old Saxon]] ''scado'', and [[Old High German]] ''scato'' (meaning 'shadow') - compare also the Irish [[Scáthach]], a famous woman warrior known as 'the shadowy one'. Scholar John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld.<ref name=MCKINNELL63>McKinnell (2005:63).</ref>

[[Georges Dumézil]] disagrees with the notion of ''Scadin-avia'' as etymologically 'the island of the goddess Skaði'. Dumézil comments that the first element ''Scadin'' must have had—or once had—a connection to "darkness" "or something else we cannot be sure of". Dumézil says that, rather, the name ''Skaði'' derives from the name of the geographical region, which was at the time no longer completely understood. In connection, Dumézil points to a parallel in ''[[Ériu]]'', a goddess personifying [[Ireland]] that appears in some Irish texts, whose name he says comes from ''Ireland'' rather than the other way around.<ref name=DUMEZIL35>Dumézil (1973:35).</ref>

Alternatively, ''Skaði'' may be connected with the Old Norse noun ''skaði'' ('harm'),<ref name=DAVIDSON62>Davidson (1993:62).</ref> source of the Icelandic and Faroese ''[[wikt:skaði#Icelandic|skaði]]'' ('harm, damage') and [[cognate]] with English ''scathe'' (''unscathed'', ''scathing'').<ref>{{Cite web|title=scathe|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scathe|work=Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary|publisher=Merriam-Webster|access-date=25 February 2014|quote=Middle English ''skathe'', from Old Norse ''skathi''; akin to Old English ''sceatha'' 'injury', Greek ''askēthēs'' 'unharmed'|archive-date=28 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328102753/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scathe|url-status=live}}</ref>