Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).

The Parting of Nioerd and Skadi

For some time, Nioerd and Skadi, who are the personifications of summer
and winter, alternated thus, the wife spending the three short summer
months by the sea, and he reluctantly remaining with her in Thrym-heim
during the nine long winter months. But, concluding at last that their
tastes would never agree, they decided to part for ever, and returned
to their respective homes, where each could follow the occupations
which custom had endeared to them.

"Thrym-heim it's called,
Where Thjasse dwelled,
That stream-mighty giant;
But Skade now dwells,
Pure bride of the gods,
In her father's old mansion."

Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).

Skadi now resumed her wonted pastime of hunting, leaving her realm
again only to marry the semi-historical Odin, to whom she bore a son
called Saeming, the first king of Norway, and the supposed founder of
the royal race which long ruled that country.

According to other accounts, however, Skadi eventually married Uller,
the winter-god. As Skadi was a skilful marksman, she is represented
with bow and arrow, and, as goddess of the chase, she is generally
accompanied by one of the wolf-like Eskimo dogs so common in the
North. Skadi was invoked by hunters and by winter travellers, whose
sleighs she would guide over the snow and ice, thus helping them to
reach their destination in safety.

Skadi's anger against the gods, who had slain her father, the storm
giant, is an emblem of the unbending rigidity of the ice-enveloped
earth, which, softened at last by the frolicsome play of Loki (the
heat lightning), smiles, and permits the embrace of Nioerd (summer). His
love, however, cannot hold her for more than three months of the year
(typified in the myth by nights), as she is always secretly longing for
the wintry storms and for her wonted activities among the mountains.

The Worship of Nioerd

Nioerd was supposed to bless the vessels passing in and out of port,
and his temples were situated by the seashore; there oaths in his
name were commonly sworn, and his health was drunk at every banquet,
where he was invariably named with his son Frey.

As all aquatic plants were supposed to belong to him, the marine sponge
was known in the North as "Nioerd's glove," a name which was retained
until lately, when the same plant has been popularly re-named the
"Virgin's h