........ Far beyond the ocean, the fearless lava flows. Near the burning blue crevasses of lava, lay a place called Thrymheim. This was the giant Thaizi and his daughter Skadi's storm-home and stronghold in the mountains.
........Thaizi had gone to catch his prisoner, the goddess Idun, who carried the apples of youth. As Skadi waited for them to return, the sun set. When the sun touched the horizon, the sky in the West looked as if it caught on fire and blazed. When another long day passed and still Thaizi and his goddess-prisoner had not come home, Skadi was afraid that the other gods must have got to him. Even as she waited for his return, she knew in her heart that she would never see her father again. Shei grew very angry and that anger got worse as time went by. She swore that she would get back at her father's murderers, as she walked from cold room to cold room in Thrymheim.
........ Finally, Skadi put on a suit of chain mail-armor and a helmet, and the finest of her father's weapons -- a sword with magic snakelike patterns engraved on it, a spear with a handle made from an ash tree, and a circular shield covered with animal skin and painted with birds of prey - gleaming eyes of gold, and open red beaks. Then she set out for Asgard, the world of the gods.
........ Now that Idun walked among the gods again, and the giant Thaizi was dead, and now that they had recovered the apples of youth, the Aesir, or the race of gods, were carefree once more. They were aware of the undying sun as if they had never felt the sun on their backs before; they listened to each note of each bird call, and watched ever grass blade growing. They felt at peace with themselves again, and at peace with each other.
........ When Heimdall the watchman of the gods saw Skadi nearing the walls of Asgard, he raised the alarm. The gods had no wish to see more blood spilt, nor to make the fight last any longer. Some of them gathered and met the giantess and asked her, "Will you take gold for your father's death?"
........ "What good would that be?" asked Skadi. "Have you never heard of my father's wealth? When his father Olvaldi died, he and his brothers, Idi and Gang, came into a gold fortune. They measured it out in mouthfuls, so as to share it fairly. And whatever belonged to my father now belongs to me. No, I will not take gold!"
........ "What will you take?" asked the gods.
........ "A husband," said Skadi, and she looked long at Balder, fairest, most gentle and wise of the gods. "I'll settle for a husband and a lot of laughter."
........ The gods talked and agreed that Skadi could choose a husband from amongst them as payment for her father's death. They did, however, make one condition. "You must choose him by his feet," said Woden. "Until you've chosen, that is all you'll be able to see of him."
........ Skadi was not unwilling, so Woden arranged for all the gods to gather in the courtyard so that the giantess could make her choice. Shielding her eyes from all but the gods' feet, Skadi lost no time and at once chose the most shapely pair of feet, believing that they would naturally belong to Balder, the most handsome of the gods.
........ "A good choice," said Woden.
........ Skadi quickly looked up and gazed into the friendly, knowing eyes not of Balder, but of the lord of seafarers and sea harvests, the god Njord. His skin was weathered and he had the clear gaze of one who has spent a long time at sea; he even smelt of salt. Skadi was startled. She stepped back, and her cold look killed Njord's smile.
........ "I thought ..." she began.
........ "Think carefully," said Njord. "Remember the words you speak now are the beginning of a marriage."
........ "I've been tricked," said Skadi bitterly.
........ "You might have chosen Loki," replied Njord without anger.
........ "So you have your husband then," said Woden. "A fair reward for your father's death; many would say, indeed, the better of the bargain."
"You've forgotten the laughter," said Skadi.
........ "That's easily put right," said Woden.
........ Skadi shook her head. "Since my father died, I've been to angry or I've been drained by being so tired. I'll never laugh again."
"Where's the trickster?" asked Woden.
........ Loki stepped forward rather slowly. He wondered whether Skadi knew that he had not only helped her father steal the apples of youth, but helped the gods to recover them too, and so brought about her father's death.
........ "Can you make this lady laugh?" said Woden. "If anyone can, you can."
........ "Not I sir..." said Loki, the trickster a sly God, seemingly afraid as if he were some peasant standing before the High One.
........ "Not before I've told you what happened, sir..." Loki produced a long leather thong from behind his back. "It was like this. I was going to market and I wanted to take that goat there along with me." Loki winked at Skadi. "You know how goats are, don't you, Lady? They have ideas of their own."
........ Loki tripped across the courtyard where all the gods and Skadi were standing, and tied one end of the thong to the goat's beard. Both of my hands were full, Lady, for I was carrying produce to the market. So I tied this goat to a tegument ..."
........ "A tegument?" said Skadi.
........ "Lady," said Loki, "my testicles!" and he looped the thong behind his scrotum. The goat moved a little further off to nibble at new grass, and the thong linking them together tightened.
........ "Early in the morning it was, Lady," said Loki. "Ah, very early! The goat suckers (milkers) were still singing ..."
The Trickster cupped his hands to his mouth, closed his eyes, and made a soft whirring sound, "Rrr ....rrrrrr.....rrrrr... OWK!" squawked Loki, as the goat suddenly yanked the thong.
........ "Owk!" squawked the goat as Loki pulled back. It was a tug-of-war, and when the goat gave way, it gave way so completely, bounding towards Loki, that he fell backwards into Skadi's arms. Skadi laughed and laughed and temporarily forgave Loki for what he did because she was laughing so.
"Playing the goat," said Loki, panting.
........ "Enough," said Allfather. "I've a mind to please Skadi further." Then Woden took two liquid marbles from his gown and Skadi recognized her father's eyes.
........ "But look!" cried Woden, as he hurled the balls into the heavens "two stars," he said. "your father will look down upon you and upon us all, for as long as the world lasts."
........ Njord asked Skadi to go with him to his hall, the shipyard Noatun, but Skadi said she would only live with Njord in her old home, Thrymheim.
........ "Since neither of us is going to get his way entirely," said Njord, "we had better agree to take turns: nine nights in one place, then nine nights in the other."
........ Njord and Skadi left the courtyard and the kingdom of Asgard, and made their way to Jotunheim, the realm of the giants. They climbed over rocks, and through sheets of snow to bright for the eye when the sun shone on them, otherwise a boring wasteland when clouds covered the sun. The higher they climbed into the frozen world, the happier Skadi became. In Thrymheim, she gave herself to Njord. After nine nights, however, Njord admitted that he had no love for the icy mountains.
........ "And," he said, "I think the howling of wolves sounds ugly compared to the whooping of swans."
........ Then Njord and Skadi came back to Asgard and passed nine nights at Noatun, and Skadi's dislike of the fertile, rocking sea was no less great than Njord's dislike of the barren mountains.
........ "I cannot even sleep here," she said. "There's too much noise in the shipyard, and too much noise from the harbor - boats going out and coming in, and the unloading of fish, and the mewing gulls disturb me, flying in at dawn from deep waters."
........ It was not long before Njord and Skadi decided that the gap between their taste was so great that, although they were married, they must live apart. Njord stayed at Noatun and Skadi returned to Thrymheim. The giantess covered great distances on her skis; her quiver of arrows were always at her side and she hunted and shot wild animals.
........ The ski goddess, that crouched dark shape, sweeping across the frozen snow scape's, took injury and death wherever she went. She had been touched by the god of plenty; she had softened a little, but then froze once more.

.... When the heart is full of anger,.... the mouth often speaks with the tongue of a monster.

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