LOKI

'Loki' or Loke is the mythical giant/deity in Norse mythology, a son of the giants Fárbauti and Laufey. Loki also had two brothers (Helbindi & Byleist) of whom nothing is known. He is described as the "contriver of all fraud". In the Eddas, Loki is described as mixing freely with the gods for a long time, even becoming Odin's blood brother before murdering Baldr. After the murder, the Æsir restrain Loki with the internal organs of his children and he is eventually freed to fight on the side of the Jotun against the Æsir at Ragnarök.
Despite much research, "the figure of Loki remains obscure; there is no trace of a cult, and the name does not appear in place-names."^[1] Sources inconsistently place him among the Æsir; however, this may only be due to his close relation with Odin and the amount of time that he spends among the Æsir.
Like other deities in the Eddas, Loki is described with many names: ''Lie-Smith, Sly-God, Shape-Changer, Sly-One, Lopt, Sky Traveller, Sky Walker'' and ''Wizard Of Lies'' among others.
The composer Richard Wagner presented Loki under an invented Germanized name 'Loge' in his opera Das Rheingold. Loge is also mentioned, but does not appear as a character, in Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung. The name comes from the common mistranslation and confusion with Logi (a fire-giant), which has created the misconception of Loki being a creation of fire, having hair of fire or being associated with fire.

Contents

Eddic

Nature

Children

Scheming with fellow gods

Slayer of Baldr

The binding of Loki and his fate at Ragnarök

Faroese folklore

Loki in modern references

Other spellings

References

External links

Eddic

Most information regarding Loki that we have today has been extracted from the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda.

Nature

Loki was not so much a figure of unmitigated badness as a kind of celestial con man. He would often bail out the gods after playing tricks on them, as illustrated by the myth in which he shears Sif's hair and then replaces it, or when he is responsible for the loss of Iðunn's apples of youth and then retrieves them again. Loki is an adept shape-shifter, with the ability to change both form (examples include transmogrification to a salmon, horse, bird, flea, etc.) and sex.

Children

Loki was the father (and in more than one instance the mother) of many beasts, humans and monsters.
Having liaisons with giantesses was nothing unusual for gods in Norse mythology—both Odin and Freyr are good examples; and since Loki was actually a giant himself, there is nothing unusual about this activity. Together with Angrboda, he had three children:

★ Jörmungandr, the sea serpent;

★ Fenrir the giant wolf preordained to slay Odin at the time of Ragnarök;

★ Hel, ruler of the realm of the dead.
Loki also married a goddess named Sigyn who bore him two sons: Narfi and Vali. (This Vali is not to be confused with Odin's son with the giantess Rind). To punish Loki for his part in Baldr's death, Odin turned Vali into a rabid wolf who proceeded to tear Narfi's throat out. Narfi's entrails were used to chain Loki to a large rock until Ragnarok.
While he was in the form of a mare Loki mated with the stallion Svadilfari and gave birth to Sleipnir, the eight-legged steed of Odin.
One story in the Hyndluljóð states that Loki ate the heart of a woman and proceeded to give birth to a monster whose name is not given.

Scheming with fellow gods

Loki occasionally works with the other gods and goddesses. For example, he tricked the unnamed giant who built the walls around Asgard out of being paid for his work by distracting his horse while disguised as a mare—thereby he became the ''mother'' of Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In another myth, he puts the dwarves against each other in a gifting contest. The dwarves make Odin's spear, Freyr's ship and Sif's wig. He even rescues Iðunn. Finally, in ''Þrymskviða'', Loki manages, with Thor at his side, to retrieve Mjolnir after the giant Þrymr secretly steals it, in order to ask for Freyja as a bride in exchange.
Even though Loki may have been a liability to gods (leading to the death of Baldr, the birth of Fenrir and other monsters that would eventually engulf the world), he provided the gods with all their most precious items, from Thor's hammer to the flying ships, and these artifacts help the gods ultimately defeat evil.

Slayer of Baldr

Loki may have overplayed his hand when, disguised as a giantess, he arranged the murder of Baldr. He used mistletoe, the only plant which had not sworn never to harm Baldr, and made a dart of it, which he tricked Baldr's blind brother Höðr into throwing at Baldr, thereby killing him. Another version of the myth, preserved in ''Gesta Danorum'', does not mention Loki.
Loki, in the shape of an evil witch with stained black teeth Thokk, was the only being that refused to weep for Baldr, preventing the defunct god's return from Hel. After refusing to weep for Baldr, Loki (in the form of Thokk) stepped into a cave, and immediately after changed shape into a raven.

The binding of Loki and his fate at Ragnarök

The murder of Baldr was not left unpunished, and eventually the gods tracked down Loki, who was hiding in a pool at the base of Franang's Falls in the shape of a salmon. There they caught the Trickster with his own famous invention, the fishing net. They also hunted down Loki's two children with Sigyn, Narfi and Váli (not to be confused with Váli, the son of Odin and Rind). They changed Váli into a wolf, and he then turned against his brother and killed him. They used Narfi's entrails to bind Loki to three slabs of stone, and Skaði placed a snake above his head so that its venom would pour onto him. Sigyn sits beside him and collects the venom in a wooden bowl, but she has to empty the bowl when it fills up, during which time the searing venom drips onto Loki's face. The pain is then so terrible that he writhes, making the earth shake.
Baldr's murder was also one of the events that precipitated Ragnarök. Loki would stay bound until then. When Ragnarök finally comes and Loki is freed by the trembling earth, he will sail to Vigrid from the north on a ship that also bears Hel and all those from her realm. Once on the battlefield, he will meet Heimdall. They will fight and though Heimdall is ultimately victorious, he later dies of his wounds.

Faroese folklore

Not all lore depicts Loki as a malevolent being. An 18th century ballad (that may have drawn from a much earlier source) from the Faroe Islands, entitled ''Loka Táttur'', depicts Loki as a friend to man: when a ''thurs'' (troll or giant) comes to take a farmer's son away, the farmer and his wife pray to Odin to protect him. Odin hides the son in a field of wheat, but the thurs finds him. Odin rescues the son and takes him back to the farmer and his wife, saying that he is done hiding the son. The couple then prays to Hœnir, who hides the son in the neck-feathers of a swan, but again the thurs finds him. On the third day, they pray to Loki, who hides the son amidst the eggs of a flounder. The thurs finds the flounder, but Loki instructs the boy to run into a boathouse. The giant gets his head caught and Loki kills him by chopping off his leg and inserting a stick and a stone in the leg stump to prevent the thurs from regenerating. He takes the boy home, and the farmer and his wife embrace both of them.

Loki in modern references

Portrayals of Loki in modern culture vary wildly, from villainous and malicious trickster to benevolent yet mischievous hero.

★ Loki is the main character of the anime Matantei Loki Ragnarok.

★ He is mentioned in the movie ''The Mask'' and appears in its sequel.

★ Loki retains his character as God of Mischief in the Marvel Comics Universe, where he is portrayed as the half-brother of Thor and adopted son of Odin. In the Marvel Universe, Odin adopts Loki after killing his father in battle. Loki's attempt at baiting Thor into battle via the Incredible Hulk results in the formation of superhero team, The Avengers.

★
★ The same Loki appears in the video game '' as one of the key antagonists alongside Dr. Doom, Ultron, Enchantress and Baron Mordo.

★ Loki is also a common recurring character in Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series, ''The Sandman''.

★ Loki also appears as a character in Neil Gaimain's novel American Gods, though in disguise.

★ Loki also appeared in the 1999 religious comedy 'Dogma', portrayed as the angel of Death.

★ Loki appears a number of times as a God in Melvin Burgess' novel ''Bloodtide''.

★ Loki is a character in the popular Korean Manhwa Ragnarok.

★ Loki, under the name of Luke, is a main character in Diana Wynne Jones' novel Eight Days of Luke

Other spellings

★ Common Danish, Swedish and Norwegian form: Loke

★ German form: Lohho, Loge (Wagner)

References

1. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2004

External links

★ Viktor Rydberg's "Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland" e-book

★ W. Wagner's "Asgard and the Home of the Gods" e-book

★ "Myths of Northern Lands" e-book by H.A. Guerber

★ Peter Andreas Munch's "Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes" e-book

★ An essay on Loki

★ More images of Loki

★ The Lokasenna - "Loki's Wrangling": an insult competition between Loki and the other gods

★ "A walk through Mallerstang" - with reference to the carving of Loki in Kirkby Stephen parish church, Cumbria