Skadi

Skadi, called the Queen of the Hunt, was a Jotunn of the Norse realms and one of the greatest huntresses the world had known. Her story was recorded among the murals of the giants and told by Mimir to Atreus, a tale of skill turned against itself by the malice of Odin.

The greatest huntress#

Skadi was the daughter of Thiazi, a Jotunn who could take the shape of any wild creature, and from him she learned to hunt them all. She crafted second feet from the ribs of a pack beast, devices that let her glide across the snow so swiftly that no animal could evade her. By this skill she became a huntress beyond compare, surpassing even the gods. So renowned was she that even Laufey, the guardian of the giants, admired her.

Odin's malice#

Odin wanted Skadi for his wife, believing she would bear him strong sons. She refused him, and Odin, taking her rejection as an insult, vowed revenge. He spread word throughout the realms of a great eagle that plagued the Aesir, stealing the golden apples of youth, and claimed that not even the finest archers among the Aesir could bring it down. Odin understood that Skadi could not resist the temptation to prove herself superior to all others, and so she joined the hunt for the creature.

Her fate in the snow#

Skadi tracked the eagle as it flew across terrain that she alone could cross, gliding where no other hunter could follow, and loosed an arrow from her unerring bow. When she went to collect her kill, she found no eagle at all but her own father, Thiazi, slain by her own hand. The trick had been Odin's design from the first. Overcome with grief and shame, for nothing in nature was more reviled than a child who killed their own parent, Skadi gave herself up to her fate as winter's blanket fell over the mountains. She died holding her father, the mountain holding her in turn, in an embrace meant to last for all time. As Mimir told Atreus, there were few happy endings for the giants.