#helgate

With so much love shown to Scathach within the last year, from her ribbed sweater perfection to her latest Rank Up that makes her a Godslayer EX, I thought this would be a good time to update, and consolidate, my theories regarding Scathach. Much of this is from tweets I’ve composed on Twitter, expanding on and changing my original post from—

Holy f*ck, a year ago? It felt longer.

A few things have changed, but the theory remains the same: there are hints throughout FGO of Scathach having originated from Scandinavia as a character (obviously not in real world mythology). This time, I will also try to make it more accessible. Went overboard with the info last time! However, if there is anything that feels lacking, please let me know. There is so much more to this theory, but I will be leaving some thing out for sake of time; yours and mine.

Essentially, no one bats and eye with certain liberties are taken with TYPE-MOON’s development of other Servants, so I don’t think my theory is any more outlandish. Jack the Ripper, for one, is the amalgam of aborted fetuses from Whitechapel prostitutes. Insane? Sure, but it’s reasonable in the world and the magic system Nasu’s created. I hope to prove he’s done the same for Scathach.

Almost everything about Fate’s Scathach is divorced from her depiction in mythology. Often that is the chief complaint about her. From her skills to her lore, it could be argued fairly that everything attributed to her amounts to a padded list. She’s just an arbitrarily developed character because she doesn’t have a lot to go on in her mythology, right? I think it’s a little better than that. Scathach’s character attributes are hardly random, all pointing to a single origin and backstory, with a grounding in mythology that doesn’t make them all that outlandish if the information is brought to the forefront.

First, the figure that birthed this theory: Scathach-Skadi. It all started with a height difference you won’t find with a Pseudo-Servant. A Pseudo-Servant is a human vessel housing a spirit that normally wouldn’t, and couldn’t, be summoned. In these cases, the host is indistinguishable from the human they were before. So, if Scathach-Skadi were just some run-of-the-mill Pseudo-Servant, where Scathach served only as a host vessel, why would they be a different height?

This infers that their fusion took place at a point when Scathach was young. Given the height difference, she was likely a teenager, not quite as tall as her adult form that we are familiar with. Also, as we fans know from the infamous image by @/Cactus0130, there is also a certain adipose distribution difference between the two. Being younger, and perhaps not as much a warrior, she wasn’t as toned.

Officially, Scathach-Skadi isn’t considered a Pseudo-Servant, as it turns out. She’s a Divided Spirit, and a Servant Manifestation of one at that. She’s a unique being and an offshoot of a Divinity. What this means is, she’s more like the Tamamo Nine and Quetzalcoatl. She is Skadi, but a different aspect of Skadi. A smaller piece blended in with another being, forming a unique Manifestation. Since she isn’t considered a Pseudo-Servant, she wasn’t taken from another time or place via a connection to the Holy Grail either. This means she was more than likely at the event of Ragnarok, close by and a teen, when Odin fused her with what was left of Skadi. After all, the fusion was an act to save Skadi, as well as a plan to distract a rampant Surtr. Odin didn’t even have the strength to seal Surtr away properly, let alone grab a younger Scathach from some other time in history, who hadn’t even made a name for herself yet. Especially, a teen with no connection as a human to a Holy Grail war.

Not human? You read that right. Looking into Skadi further led to another interesting discovery: Skadi’s Passive Skill “Core of a Goddess.” To have this skill, a Servant cannot be human. Even Pseudo-Servants hosting a divinity, even a high ranking one like Parvati, are capped off at Rank B. The likes of Stheno, Euryale and Quetz all rank EX, for comparison.

Stheno and Euryale are easy to understand, Quetz ranks EX because she’s purely a Divided Spiritd and doesn’t have the human attribute whatsoever. For comparison, Scathach-Skadi ranks lower at A despite being a Divided Spirit and a Servant Manifestation like Quetz. The reason for this being she has traits as a Giantess in her mythology. Not because she has human traits, or is a Pseudo-Servant with Scathach as a host, but because of her own traits as a Giantess. This means Scathach, fusing with her, didn’t change her attributes and thus her Rank with this Skill. Scathach isn’t human, and wasn’t at the time of their fusion.

Fate’s Scathach has some inconsistencies herself that also point to Scandinavia as her original mythology. For one, the most glaring of inconsistencies, is the Gate of Skye. Gates are not a part of her myths, nor is it a feature in Celtic myths overall, even as they were written and rewritten by later cultures. These same cultures took what amounted to nothing more than hill forts and turned them into Medieval-style castles and changed cattle raids into full-blown wars, and even then they didn’t include gates as a mythological trope. So, why does Scathach have one?

Other mythologies feature gates, doorways to realms beyond the natural and even beyond the living. Norse mythology has a special gate, the Helgate, and the realm within it has similar qualities to the Land of Shadows within the Gate of Skye.

The Helgate is a portal in the wall surrounding Hel proper, one among many in fact. The realm within is depicted similarly across accounts, located deep in Niflheim, the primordial realm of darkness, frost and mist. To get there, one must pass through the mist and shadows, and cross the rushing river Gjoll, crashing with the din of battling armies, as well as the guarded bridge over it. It is a journey only braved by the dead, the gods or with those with supernatural aid.

…the nether gods purposed that he should pay a visit in the flesh to the regions whither he must go when he died. So they first pierced through a certain dark misty cloud, and then advancing along a path that was worn away with long thoroughfaring, they beheld certain men wearing rich robes, and nobles clad in purple; these passed, they at last approached sunny regions which produced the herbs the woman had brought away. Going further, they came on a swift and tumbling river of leaden waters, whirling down on its rapid current divers sorts of missiles, and likewise made passable by a bridge.

— Hadding’s Voyage Underground (From Saxo’s “History of the Danes”)

We see similar with Hermodr’s journey to Hel, on his way to petition for the dead Baldr’s release:

He rode nine nights through dark dales and deep, so that he saw not before he was come to the river Gjöll and rode onto the Gjöll-Bridge; which bridge is thatched with glittering gold.

— the Gylfaginning

Some believe the Gate is guarded by a hound, or wolf, named Garm. And some believe Garm was the Fenris wolf under a different name (based on attributes that overlap between the two, and Snorri Sturlson’s penchant for changing things). Regardless, it’s here where the dead go and never return, living a second life under the rule of its goddess.

This is another thing Hel and its Gate has in common with Scathach’s Noble Phantasm. Not only is it a world where the dead abide and death rules, but it is also a place of second life.

Then a wall hard to approach and to climb blocked their further advance. The woman tried to leap it, but in vain, being unable to do so even with her slender wrinkled body; then she wrung off the head of a cock which she chanced to be taking down with her, and flung it beyond the barrier of the walls; and forthwith the bird came to life again, and testified by a loud crow to recovery of its breathing.

— “Hadding’s Voyage Underground”

Scathach uses a similar concept during her encounter with Cu Chulainn Alter. In the Fifth Singularity, she tanks a powerful blow from him and she dives into the Gate. She does this to escape him, but to also preserve her life as the attack had obliterated most of her organs. We see this effect of the Gate of Skye more the focus as Skadi uses it.

She may have been a figure in Norse myth with all this being true, even an obscure one. It’s the most logical conclusion I can reach with this canon information. Those who read my original theory will remember that I had proposed Modgudr — the warrior maiden and possibly a Giantess herself — as her identity in the Norse pantheon, but a recent development has changed my position. Scathach’s relationship with the Gae Bolg is what threw me at first, making me believe that her old identity had to be a warrior, but I have since fixed the theory. It’s all thanks to voicelines from Caster Cu Chulainn.

As a reminder, Cu Chulainn (LB6 Spoilers from here) is summoned as a Caster during the Incineration of Humanity. He was linked, as he is later during the Invasion of the Foreign God, with the Norse god Odin of Proper Human History.

This exchange proved both interesting and confusing. The thing about this voiceline is: there are two such wells, one in Celtic mythology and one in Norse mythology. Which one is Cu referring to, though? First clue is that he seems to think that becoming a Caster, a Class Container brought about by Odin, has something to do with Scathach, too. To make sure I wasn’t letting my biases drive me, I looked into the Celtic Well of Wisdom— Connla’s Well. I came up empty, unfortunately. None of the figures around that well had anything to do with Scathach, even in theory. But it’s another few lines of dialogue from Caster Cu as well as the figures around the Norse Well of Wisdom — Mimir’s Well — that helped make sense of the previous voiceline.

Cu explains that he would technically manifest as a Druid, being a Celt himself, and those are the types of powers granted to him as a Caster, but he stresses that he is not a Druid. This makes sense, Odin helped him gain the Caster class with their connection, but why would Scathach be a part of it?

This, along with everything else, makes more sense if her origins truly lie in Scandinavia. Now let’s look at Mimir’s Well.

Mimir is a giant who lived in Jotunheim, whose name can be found in one of the many names for the World Tree (Mimameiðr). He drank from his well daily and was renown for his wisdom. So wise was he, and so great was the reward one could gain by drinking from his well, that Odin went to him in one of his many quest for knowledge. He gave up his own eye for a single sip.

Mimir is killed by the Vanir after a hostage exchange of sorts, beheaded. Odin kept the head with him and it would counsel him, telling him secrets about other worlds. Mimir, as an important note, in believed to be Odin’s maternal uncle.

Mimir also had a wife, a mysterious giantess (gygr) named Sinmara. Not much is known about her, her only attestation is from the Fjolsvinnsmal where she demands an impossible item in return for a powerful weapon that she is guarding. Conjectures about her are drawn from her name(s), the company she keeps and this powerful weapon.

Starting with her name, Sinmara has no solid and agreed-upon interpretation. “Sin” could refer to either sinew or nerves, combined with “mara” as “nerve-wracking/furious nightmare”. “Sin” could also mean “great”, as in “the great nightmare”. Others suggest her name may have a link to “sindr”, like the English cinder, referring to ashes. She’s referred to as “the pale giantess” in the Fjolsvinnsmal, after all, so it would be fitting. The name “Perpetual Incubus” and “Sinew maimer” have been floated as well, but you can see all of these names have the commonality of a grim nature.

Sinmara’s link to Hel (place and person) is rather tentative, yet her description as a pale giantess, a golden giantess or even the wearer of the gold ring/roots of Yggdrasil, as well as her association with Laevantein, make some more versed in the subject than I am think she’s Hel (the person) herself, daughter of Loki. She is also possibly the mother of “night dises,” disir being a general term for female goddesses. On this note, it’s worth mentioning that Scathach’s daughter’s name means “specter” according to James MacKillop. It stems from the root “uath“, with such meanings as “fear, horror, terror; a horrible or terrible thing, horrible creature, spectre, phantom” with the “-ach” at the end, like Scathach. “The Terrible One”, the specter, daughter of Scathach.

Another possible similarity is a fact that Hel (the place) had champions, much like Valhalla did. It’s never divulged who trained them, or where they trained and lived, and Snorri doesn’t outright say this in his descriptions of Hel, but these champions are there regardless. According to the “Gylfaginning”, Loki is to arrive on the battlefield and “all the champions of Hel follow [him]”. Even in the “Voluspa”, describing the mounting of forces for Ragnarok, the same is said: “Heroes tread Hel-way”.

So, among the many other forces gathering for Ragnarok, one is full of Hel’s champions and heroes. Many experts point out that the concept of Hel being a place of punishment and the place of those who died ingloriously due to sickness and/or sin is likely a Christian concept, one Snorri himself added and even contradicts in his own work.

Hel (the place) and the Land of Shadows share yet another trait. People there aren’t easily able to enter, and once within they seem to be untouched by the permanence of death. In the case of Hel, the prior quote from “Hadding’s Voyage Underground” shows this explicitly. As for the Land of Shadows, the initiation for all new warriors seeking Scathach's training is a trial that causes the death of the initiate, filling them with so many missiles that “there may be no place of a dart in his whole body without his heart’s blood, and that (all) the blood of his body be let out of him.” It’s a trial that none have succeeded in passing, until Cu Chulainn showed up.

Touching the dart-feat, it was found neither with Uathach, nor with Scáthach, nor Aife, nor Ablach, nor the queen of the Land of Snow, nor Eisin chinne, nor with knight or lady who had received instruction how to perform the dart-feat, until Cúchulainn came…

— “The Training of CuChulainn” by Whitley Stokes

If all of her warriors were “hazed” in this fashion, and all have failed this feat before Cu, that means all of them have been killed. Somehow, many thousands of warriors train within her grounds despite this fact.

The parallels keep piling up, especially when we look into the Laevantein, its part being just as important as the others in this theory. It was created by Loki (Hel’s own father) down at the Helgate, using wood from the World Tree who shaped it using Runes. This is similar to how Gungnir is created in one of its accounts— by fashioning a branch of Yggdrasil using Runes.

Laevantein is a special weapon, touted as unerring and irresistible, it’s said to be the only weapon that can strike down the cosmic bird Víðopnir. Laevantein is destined to become the blade Surtr uses during Ragnarok to raze the world. Until then, the weapon was given to Sinmara, who is also Surtr’s consort, kept locked under nine seals.

Strangely enough, despite its use as a sword later, Lavaentein isn’t given a definitive form. Its name has many theorized meanings, lending to many forms it can be interpreted as: a staff, an arrow, a blade… or a spear. “Sure-striking dart/arrow” (or a spiculum), “an arrow’s name that never disappoints the aim”, “wounding wand”, “wand-of-destruction”, “damage twig”, “wand of non-deceit”.

In essence, we have a weapon that can be considered many things, and perhaps could have been all these things— even a ranged weapon to take down the cosmic bird or a sword to raze the world. In any case we clearly we have a weapon created from a sacred tree using Norse Runes, a ranged weapon that never disappoints the aim and can kill without fail.

If Scathach was truly Sinmara/Hel at the time of Ragnarok, ruling in a realm of death, shadows and mist much like her later home in Celtic myth, then she’d be familiar with Runes, the nature of a weapon such as Gae Bolg, and champions worthy of fighting in war. We find this to be true, as Scathach knows all these things between her myths as well as her lore in Fate. There’s even proof in Fate that she does, indeed, understand and can employ the same techniques as the Norse gods when it comes to creating powerful weapons such as the likes of Lavaentein.

Here, she makes an unerring and irresistible weapon using the sacred wood of the Ash tree via Runes. This is a direct mimicry of the Norse gods. Scathach trains heroes and champions, something found in the realm of Hel as well. She rules a realm of death, locked behind Gates, that can impart a sort of life after death for those within its bounds.

Perhaps, at the end of Ragnarok, as it was supposed to happen in PHH, and not the Lostbelt where she is fused with fellow giantess Skadi, she survives the end of the world as other deities do and moved on from there. As a nebulous being even in her own mythology, she slipped off into the periphery of legend and myth.

My proposal: she survives Ragnarok, as other gods do (including Baldr himself, living in her mansion) and for 1000 years after, she used her Gate to remain youthful enough to go on, and to heal from grievous wounds. She eventually settled in the Isles, perhaps associating with another race of beings similar to the Giants: the Fomorians. There, finding her Scandinavian peoples had invaded and infused their mythologies into these foreign lands, she was able to settle down. She took on the name of her home and ruled there, as she had done as “Hel”. A being of death, containing many spirits and training champions and heroes within her walls. Familiar with the likes of Gae Bolg, she easily mastered its abilities, even using her knowledge from Loki’s creation of Laevantein in order to make a copy of the weapon and give it to Cu Chulainn, keeping the original for herself. But in the end, having settled into the Land of Shadows permanently, she became trapped there when it was discarded the Outside of the World, unable to leave and thus physically immortal forever against her will, which is why she cannot die. She cannot age anymore, and grievous wounds aren’t lethal. Trapped for 2000 years, on top of the 1000 since Ragnarok (and the years before even that she spent as a goddess in Scandinavia), she is weary in her soul and yearns for rest. Eternal rest.