Sif

Sif was the Aesir goddess of wheat, earth, harvest, and family, the second wife of Thor and the daughter-in-law of Odin. Mother of Thrud and Modi and stepmother of Magni, she served the All-Father as his diplomat until grief for her dead sons turned her against him, and she survived Ragnarok to lead the Aesir into a new age.

A daughter of Gladsheim#

Sif was born to two Aesir, Mandifari and Hreth, and grew up in Gladsheim within the walls of Asgard. She was best known for her long golden hair, the most prominent mark of her beauty. As an adult she married the thunder god Thor, and with him she had two children, Modi and later Thrud. She also raised Thor's son Magni, born of another, as her own, and counted both boys among her own children.

In her later years Sif served Odin as his diplomat, managing relations with the mortals of New Midgard who had been resettled within Asgard. She was, in those days, much like her husband, given to drink and revelry, and she followed Odin's harsh manner of parenting, berating and disciplining her children to forge them into the kind of strong servants the All-Father valued.

Grief and the turn against Odin#

Everything changed when Magni and Modi died on a mission set them by Odin. The All-Father showed no grief, deeming them worthless and Asgard better off without them, and Sif's long loyalty curdled into distrust. She came to see that Odin had thrown her sons at his problems "like brittle knives," and her distrust deepened into open contempt.

Her bitterness sharpened further when Odin invited Atreus into Asgard and lodged him in the very room that had belonged to Modi, whom Atreus had killed. Sif held open contempt for the boy, and she feared above all that her surviving daughter Thrud would be the next of her family to die. She gave up drink and took up a gentler manner with Thrud, even forbidding her to fight or become a Valkyrie, unwilling to let her serve under Odin. She pressed Thor to do the same, to guard his own family and stand up to his father, and though he gave up drinking he could not bring himself to defy Odin.

When Kratos killed Heimdall, Sif seized on the death to argue against Odin's protection of Atreus, since the All-Father had sworn no more Aesir blood would be spilled. She tried to have Atreus punished, and when Odin ordered her to stand down she confronted him over his broken promise and his neglect of his own kin. Odin dismissed her, and Sif turned to Thor, telling him that the All-Father no longer protected them and that he had thrown Magni and Modi away. Her words helped convince Thor that Atreus was the true threat.

Ragnarok and after#

During Ragnarok, when Thrud confronted Atreus over his plan to bring down Odin and destroy Asgard, Sif appeared with the young Midgardian Skjoldr and told her daughter that Atreus had been right about Odin all along. She said the All-Father would sacrifice anyone to solve his problems, their friends and family among them, and that the only way their family could be whole again was without him. She gave Thrud her blessing to go with Atreus and confront Thor, and the two parted with words of love.

Sif survived the breaking of Asgard. With both Odin and Thor dead, she became the new leader of the remaining Aesir and Asgardians. In the aftermath she worked with Hildisvini to bring the survivors into Vanaheim so they might help the Vanir rebuild the realm. When Kratos and Freya later traveled there, they found Sif in Freyr's camp, the first of the Aesir to come to Vanaheim in peace. She thanked Kratos for his help during Ragnarok and gave herself over to the long work of healing the old hatred between Aesir and Vanir, settling at last in Vanaheim.

Nature and bearing#

Sif was a loving wife and a caring mother who dearly loved Thor and Thrud and mourned Magni and Modi as if they had been her own blood. The transformation of her grief, from a drunken, dutiful servant of the All-Father into a woman who set her family above all and turned against the god she had once revered, defined the last days of her old life. By her daughter's account, milk curd was Sif's favorite, and Skjoldr often made it for her.