Editing Skaði (section)

==Theories==

===''Völsunga saga''===
[[File:Trollheimen.JPG|thumb|A light [[snowdrift]] in the mountains of Norway]]
Another figure by the name of Skaði who appears in the first chapter of ''[[Völsunga saga]]''. In the chapter, this Skaði—who is male—is the owner of a [[thrall]] by the name of [[Breði]]. Another man, [[Sigi]]—a [[Sons of Odin|son of Odin]]—went hunting one winter with the thrall. Sigi and the thrall Breði hunted throughout the day until evening, when they compared their kills. Sigi saw that the thrall's kills outdid his own, and so Sigi killed Breði and buried Breði's corpse in a [[snowdrift]].<ref name=BYOCK35/>

That night, Sigi returned home and claimed that Breði had ridden out into the forest, that he had lost sight of Breði, and that he furthermore did not know what became of the thrall. Skaði doubted Sigi's explanation, suspected that Sigi was lying, and that Sigi had instead killed Breði. Skaði gathered men together to look for Breði and the group eventually found the corpse of Breði in a snowdrift. Skaði declared that henceforth the snowdrift should be called "Breði's drift," and ever since then people have referred to large snow drifts by that name. The fact that Sigi murdered Breði was evident, and so Sigi was considered an outlaw. Led by Odin, Sigi leaves the land, and Skaði is not mentioned again in the saga.<ref name=BYOCK35/>

Scholar [[Jesse Byock]] notes that the goddess Skaði is also associated with winter and hunting, and that the episode in ''Völsunga saga'' involving the male Skaði, Sigi, and Breði has been theorized as stemming from an otherwise lost myth.<ref name=BYOCK111>Byock (1990:111).</ref>

===Other===
Scholar [[John Lindow]] comments that the episode in ''Gylfaginning'' detailing Loki's antics with a goat may have associations with castration and a ritual involving making a goddess laugh. Lindow notes that Loki and Skaði appear to have had a special relationship, an example being Skaði's placement of the snake over Loki's face in ''Lokasenna'' and ''Gylfaginning.''<ref name=LINDOW268-270>Lindow (2001:268–270).</ref>

Due to their shared association with skiing and the fact that both place names referring to Ullr and Skaði appear most frequently in Sweden, some scholars have proposed a particular connection between the two gods.<ref name=LINDOW268-270/> On the other hand, ''Skaði'' may potentially be a masculine form and, as a result, some scholars have theorized that Skaði may have originally been a male deity.<ref name=DAVIDSON61>Davidson (1993:61).</ref>

Scholar [[Hilda Ellis Davidson]] proposes that Skaði's cult may have thrived in [[Hålogaland]], a province in northern [[Norway]], because "she shows characteristics of the [[Sami people]], who were renowned for skiing, shooting with the bow and hunting; her separation from Njord might point to a split between her cult and that of the [[Vanir]] in this region, where Scandinavians and the Sami were in close contact."<ref name=DAVIDSON61-62>Davidson (1993:61–62).</ref>