‘Njord’s Fjord‘ tells the tale an intriguing and cautionary tale of murder, retribution, the follies of choosing a partner by their feet, two possible foot fetishists, and a complicated marriage where their souls just aren’t in it. Today’s story comes from Norse mythology.

Skadi was a giantess

And she was eagerly awaiting the return of her father Thiazi. After all he had only gone to retrieve the apples of immortality from the gods, who were no match for the prowess of giants.

How long could that actually take, really?

As time passed, she became more and more concerned that her father had not yet returned to their alpine mountain home, but soon that concern became rage as she became convinced that the gods must have somehow killed her father. She put on her powersuit of armor, and also grabbed her father’s sword, and stormed down her mountain to pay those gods a visit.

The guards of Asgard could see Skadi approaching

Because of the flaming sword she carried: the sword prophesized to help end the world. The gods quickly convened and decided it might be better to negotiate with Skadi.

But what largesse can you offer the giantess who has everything? She laughed at their offer of gold, as she had mountains full of gold. But something, or someone, rather caught her eye.

Baldur Dash

Skadi told the gods she’d be willing to forgo her need for revenge in exchange for a husband, and it was the god Baldur who had caught her eye.. Odin agreed to her request, but only under one condition – that she chose her husband by his feet. An odd request to say the least. But Skadi was not one to back down from a challenge.

Odin had noticed Skadi checking out Baldur, and he wanted to protect him from having to marry a giant. But how was Odin so familiar with the feet of these male gods to know how this might influence Skadi’s choice? Maybe Odin should look the gods in the eyes when he is talking to them instead of checking out their feet.

Skadi of course picked the god with the most beautiful feet, thinking they would belong to Baldur. But nay! She was quite disappointed to find out they belonged to Njord.

Njord was the god of the sea and lived in a shipyard, or as I like to call it – Njord’s Fjord.

This was to prove a constant source of tension between the couple as Skadi loved her mountain home and could not abide living by the sea, and Njord absolutely hated life on the mountain. They tried compromising by not staying ‘sole -ly’ in either of their respective locations, but this ‘flip flopping’ of locations only made them both miserable. All that walking was also probably pretty hard on the feet!

So what do you get when you cross a beautiful giantess and a sea man?

Apparently no children.

Skadi would have to wait to have children until after the relationship failed (which did not take long, much like most mass produced shoes today) and she gave Njord the boot.

What did you think of this vase story? And what do you think about ‘Njord’s Fjord’?

Please let us know in the comments below – and have an amazing day!

Thanks for checking out our pottery! You can see more raku vases here.