Traces of Skathi

 - The Jöttnar Odin Blog -

Our new LEGEND editorial series, the Jöttnar Odin Blog, brings you expert long-form comment, insight and reflection on all aspects of mountain culture and the adventurous life. Sometimes we’ll even showcase a little photography from Odin’s own adventures. This edition of the blog is a short chronicle of his recent travels around northern Scandinavia in the search of the goddess Skathi (Skaði), the jötunn associated with skiing and mountaineering. 

Melting ice floes near Jökulsárlón, southeast Iceland. 

Traditional dried and salted cod (klippfisk) on outdoor racks at Henningsvær, Lofoten Islands, Norway

A whale vertebra washed up on the beach near Stokksnes, eastern Iceland 

Freshly-caught mackerel on the barbecue after an evening's fishing in the fjords near Lauvsnes, Norway

A glacial lake in the wilderness of Iceland's uninhabited interior

Heading out in glass-calm seas for a midnight fishing trip in the Lofoten Islands, Norway

The settlement of Strøm and the islands of Aspøya and Halmøya, Flatanger, Norway

Lone boulder under a brooding sky, northeast Iceland

Flying into Ålesund, Norway, just before midnight

 A boathouse on the fjord at Strøm, Flatanger, Norway

Looking north from Dyrhólaey, southeast Iceland

The late summer sun begins to sink below the horizon for the first time in six weeks in Norway's Lofoten Islands  

 Evening sun blazes out from under a cloud-bank, Vestvågøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Vestvågøya in the first dusk light of autumn, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Note: it has been suggested that the name of the goddess Skaði (Skathi) is linked to the origins of the modern word ‘Scandinavia’. 

The giantess old  |  in Ironwood sat,
In the east, and bore  |  the brood of Fenrir;
Among these one  |  in monster's guise
Was soon to steal  |  the sun from the sky...

Come mighty storms:  |  would you know yet more?

Völuspá (40 & 41), The Poetic Edda

The next edition of the Jöttnar Odin Blog will be published soon on LEGEND