Njord
Njord (Njorðr, originally Nerpuz) guides the course of the winds
and
governs sea and fire; he grants to those who call upon him good
fortune at
sea and in the chase, and he dispenses wealth, whether of lands or
of
chattels. Of old he came from Vanaheim. It so befell that when the
Æsir
and the Vanir were engaged in concluding a treaty of peace, each
race
gave hostages to the other, the Æsir designating Hœnir and the
Vanir,
Njord; they all spat in a crock, and from the spittle they made a
man, the
sapient Kvasir. From that time forth Njord was reckoned among the
Æsir
and took rank with the foremost of them. His dwelling, called
Noatun, is
near the sea; outside the walls swim swans and water fowl of all
sorts.
Njord’s children are the god Frey and the goddess Freyja; his
wife, their
stepmother, is Skadi, a Giantess. The Æsir having brought about
the death
of her father Thjazi, Skadi went in arms to Asgard to demand
recompense.
In order to pacify her, the Æsir permitted
her to choose a husband from their number, but she was to see only
their
feet and to make her choice in this way. She fixed her eyes on a
pair of
shapely feet and, supposing them to be Balder’s, chose
accordingly. But
her choice fell on Njord, with whom she did not live on the very
best of
terms; Skadi wished to make her abode in Thrymheim, her old home,
but
Njord wished to remain in Noatun. So they agreed to live by turns
nine
nights in Thrymheim and three nights in Noatun. When they had
stayed the
first nine nights in Thrymheim, Njord said that he was utterly
weary of the
mountains; the howling of the wolves seemed to him most lugubrious
as
compared with the singing of the swans. Skadi found herself
disappointed
likewise; when she had remained three nights in Noatun, she was no
less
weary of the screaming of the birds and the roaring of the sea,
which broke
her repose. Thus perforce they went their own ways; Skadi returned
to
Thrymheim, where she disported herself in skiing and hunting and
so
earned the sobriquet of the Ski-Deity or the Ski-Goddess
(ondurdís).
Njord was called the Scion of the Vanir, the Vanir-God, the God
Without Blemish. According to the testimony of place names, his
cult was
widespread throughout the North. At the ancient sacrificial
feasts, men
drank to Njord and Frey next after Odin; and from an early
formulary for
taking oaths it is manifest that oaths were sworn by Njord and
Frey and by
the “almighty god” (presumably Thor).
Sources:
Peter
Andreas Munch: Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods
and Heroes. The American-Scandinavian Foundation, New
York. 1926, pp. 13-14
Rasmus B. Anderson (Ed.): The Elder Eddas of Saemund
Sigfusson and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson.
Norræna Society, London-New York. 1906.
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