Njord
;)
was the Germanic sea god, a member of the divine race of Vanir, and father of the fertility gods Freyr and Freyja. When peace was agreed between the Aesir and the Vanir, the two branches of the divine family, Njord, Freyr and Freyja came to live with the Aesir as a sign of goodwill. According to some versions of the myth, the mother of Freyr and Freyja was Njord's own sister Nerthus, but since the Aesir disapproved of marriage between brother and sister, Nerthus did not accompany her husband and children to Asgard.
Njord's second marriage was to the frost giantess Skadi, who chose him on the basis of his beautiful feet. However, the couple could not agree about where they should live. Njord found Skadi's home in Jotunheim, the land of the frost giants, too cold and barren, while Skadi disliked the noise and bustle of shipbuilding around Njord's hall of Noatun in Asgard. After nine nights in each place they decided to live apart. Skadi went back to her favourite pastime of hunting on skis and the weather-beaten Njord returned to a life at sea. The apparently unbridgeable gap between them probably reflects more than personal taste. Njord was certainly seen as a god of fertility, since he provided to those who worshipped him not only safe voyages at sea, but also wealth and good fortune in the form of land and sons. Skadi's associations were quite different, however. She came from a range of frozen mountains, where heavy clouds masked the sun and harsh rocks made the ground as barren as death. In her wild and unforgiving land, where nothing was able to grow or prosper at all, there was hardly any scope for humankind.