Seiðr Loom

Æsir

Loki

The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök.

Loke och Sigyn
Loke och Sigyn, Mårten Eskil Winge and Gunnar Forssell as described above. Photograph by User:Haukurth. (1863). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Loki is the hardest figure in Norse myth to pin down. He is counted among the Æsir, yet his father is a giant; he travels with Odin and Thor, yet he arranges the death of the best of the gods and leads the enemy at the end of the world. Snorri introduces him as "the mischief-monger of the Æsir, and the first father of falsehoods," handsome to look at, "evil in spirit, very fickle in habit," and a master of the kind of wisdom called "sleight." The same sentence states the pattern of most of his stories: he "would ever bring the Æsir into great hardships, and then get them out with crafty counsel" Gylfaginning 33.

Family

Snorri names Loki's father as the giant Fárbauti, his mother as Laufey or Nál, and his brothers as Býleistr and Helblindi Gylfaginning 33. The poems call him "Laufey's son" Lokasenna 52 Þrymskviða 17, and Hyndluljóð calls him "the brother of Byleist" Hyndluljóð 42. His wife is Sigyn, and their son is Nari or Narfi Gylfaginning 33.

His other children are monsters. With the giantess Angrboða he fathered Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel Gylfaginning 34. Disguised as a mare, he drew the giant builder's stallion Svaðilfari away from work and later gave birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir Gylfaginning 42. Hyndluljóð adds a stranger tale: Loki ate a half-burnt woman's heart, became pregnant, "and thence among men came the monsters all" Hyndluljóð 43. In Lokasenna he reminds Odin that the two of them once mixed their blood as sworn brothers Lokasenna 9.

Trouble and rescue

Many stories show Loki causing a crisis and then being forced to end it. He advised the gods to let the builder of their wall use his stallion, and when the deal threatened to cost them Freyja, the sun and the moon, they threatened him with death until he found a way out (The giant builder and the wall of Asgard) Gylfaginning 42. He lured Idunn out of Ásgard to the giant Thjazi, then fetched her back in Freyja's hawk-plumage, carrying her as a nut Skáldskaparmál 1. He cut off Sif's hair, and to save his skin he had dwarves make her new hair of gold; the bet he then made with the dwarf Brokkr brought the gods Mjöllnir, Draupnir and Gungnir, and cost Loki his lips sewn shut (The treasures of the gods: Sif's hair and Brokkr's wager) Skáldskaparmál 35.

He can also be simply useful. In Þrymskviða he flies in Freyja's feather-dress to find Thor's stolen hammer Þrymskviða 4 and goes with Thor to the giants as his "maid-servant" Þrymskviða 20. On the journey to Útgarða-Loki he loses an eating contest to Logi, who turns out to be wildfire itself Gylfaginning 47. He changes shape readily: a mare, a salmon, a woman.

Baldr and the binding

The tone changes with Baldr. In Snorri's account Loki, displeased that nothing could hurt Baldr, took the shape of a woman, learned from Frigg that only the mistletoe had sworn no oath, and guided blind Höðr's hand as he threw it Gylfaginning 49. When the whole world wept to free Baldr from Hel, one giantess, Þökk, refused, and "men deem" she was Loki. Völuspá tells Baldr's death without naming Loki Völuspá 32-33; in Lokasenna he boasts of it himself: "Mine is the blame that Baldr no more / Thou seest ride home to the hall" Lokasenna 28.

Lokasenna shows him at his most savage, accusing each god in turn at Ægir's feast until Thor threatens him with the hammer (Loki's flyting at Ægir's feast). He then hid as a salmon in Fránangr's waterfall, and the gods netted him with a net copied from the ashes of his own Gylfaginning 50. They bound him over three stones with the entrails of his son. The two accounts disagree about which son: Snorri says Váli was turned into a wolf and tore apart Narfi, whose guts were used Gylfaginning 50; the prose of Lokasenna says he was bound with the bowels of his son (Váli in Bellows's translation; the Old Norse manuscript reads Nari), and Narfi became the wolf Lokasenna, prose 7. Skaði hung a snake over his face; Sigyn catches the venom in a bowl, and when she goes to empty it the drops make him writhe so hard that the earth shakes (see The binding of Loki).

One did I see in the wet woods bound,A lover of ill, and to Loki like;By his side does Sigyn sit, nor is gladTo see her mate: would you know yet more?Völuspá 35

At the end

He lies bound "till the Weird of the Gods" Gylfaginning 50. The seeress of Baldrs draumar warns Odin that no one will seek her again "Till Loki wanders loose from his bonds" Baldrs draumar 14. At Ragnarök Völuspá puts him at the helm of a ship carrying "the people of Hel" Völuspá 51; in Snorri, Hel's champions follow him onto the field of Vígríðr, and he and Heimdallr kill each other Gylfaginning 51.

Reading Loki

What Loki was to the people who told these stories is debated. Scholars commonly compare him to the tricksters of other mythologies, a boundary-crosser between gods and giants, male and female, helper and enemy. Older attempts to make him a fire god, partly on the strength of his contest with Logi, now find little support. Scholars also generally find no clear evidence that he was ever worshipped. His darkening from mischief-maker to Baldr's killer and the gods' last enemy may reflect the shape Snorri gave to his material as much as older belief, though how far is uncertain.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

he whom some call the mischief-monger of the Æsir, and the first father of falsehoods, and blemish of all gods and men: he is named Loki or Loptr
Gylfaginning 33 Snorri's portrait: handsome, evil in spirit, and the gods' chief source of both trouble and rescue.
Angrboda was the name of a certain giantess in Jötunheim, with whom Loki gat three children
Gylfaginning 34 Loki fathers the wolf, the serpent and Hel, the three beings the gods most fear.
Hödr took Mistletoe and shot at Baldr, being guided by Loki
Gylfaginning 49 Loki learns Baldr's one weakness from Frigg and puts the mistletoe in blind Hödr's hand.
Bale and hatred I bring to the gods, And their mead with venom I mix.
Lokasenna 3 Loki forces his way into Ægir's feast to insult every god in turn.
He was bound with the bowels of his son Vali, but his son Narfi was changed to a wolf.
Lokasenna, prose 7 The poem's prose epilogue tells of the binding, differing from Snorri on which son died.
One did I see in the wet woods bound, A lover of ill, and to Loki like
Völuspá 35 The seeress sees Loki bound, with Sigyn joyless at his side.
With the people of Hel, at the helm stands Loki
Völuspá 51 At the end of the world Loki is free and steers a ship against the gods.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Snorri says only that men 'deem' the giantess Thökk was Loki in disguise; the identification is not certain even in his own telling.
  • The sources disagree on which of Loki's sons was turned into a wolf and whose entrails bound him (gylfaginning 50 against lokasenna p7).
  • Snorri's list of Loki's sons varies: Nari or Narfi and Váli in Gylfaginning, 'Nari, and Áli' in Skáldskaparmál.

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Loki is now one of the best-known figures of Norse myth, largely through Marvel Comics, where he first appeared in Journey into Mystery #85 (1962), and Tom Hiddleston's portrayal in the Marvel films (from Thor, 2011) and the series Loki (2021–2023). Marvel makes him Odin's adopted son and the child of a frost-giant king named Laufey; in the Eddas Laufey is his mother, and Loki is Odin's sworn blood-brother, not his son.

Myths with Loki

Baldr's dreams and death Baldr dreams of his own death; Odin rides to Hel to question a dead seeress; and, in Snorri's telling, Loki puts a sprig of mistletoe into blind Höðr's hand. The gods lose their brightest member and the slide toward Ragnarök begins. Hermóðr's ride to Hel After Baldr's death Hermóðr rides Sleipnir nine nights down to Hel to ransom his brother. Hel agrees to let Baldr go if everything in the world weeps for him; one giantess in a cave will not. Loki's flyting at Ægir's feast Thrown out of the sea-giant Ægir's feast for killing a servant, Loki walks back in and insults every god and goddess in turn, until Thor comes home and threatens him with the hammer. Otter's ransom and Andvari's curse Loki kills an otter that turns out to be a farmer's son. To buy their lives the gods must fill and cover its skin with gold, which Loki wrings from the dwarf Andvari, along with a ring Andvari curses. The curse starts working at once. Ragnarök: the doom of the gods The end of the Norse world as told in Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál and Snorri's Gylfaginning: winter and war, the wolf and the serpent loose, the gods killed one by one, and Surtr's fire over the earth. Skaði chooses a husband Þjazi's daughter Skaði comes armed to Asgard for vengeance and accepts a settlement instead: a husband chosen by his feet, and a laugh. She picks Njörðr, hoping for Baldr, and the marriage of mountain and sea does not last. The binding of Fenrir The gods raise Loki's wolf-son Fenrir at home until they fear him, then trick him into a magic fetter made of impossible things. Týr puts his hand in the wolf's mouth as a pledge, and loses it. The binding of Loki After Baldr's death Loki hides as a salmon in a waterfall. The gods catch him in a net, bind him on three stones with his own son's entrails, and hang a serpent over his face. Sigyn catches the venom in a bowl until Ragnarök. The giant builder and the wall of Asgard A stranger offers to wall the gods' stronghold in a single winter, for the price of Freyja, the sun and the moon. When he is about to win, Loki saves the gods by turning himself into a mare — and gives birth to Sleipnir. The theft of Iðunn and her apples Caught by a giant in eagle's shape, Loki buys his freedom by luring Iðunn and her apples out of Asgard. The gods grow old, and Loki must steal her back as a falcon, with Þjazi beating after him. The treasures of the gods: Sif's hair and Brokkr's wager Loki shaves Sif's head, and to save his own skin sets two families of dwarf-smiths competing. The result is six treasures — golden hair, a folding ship, a spear, a ring, a golden boar and Thor's hammer — and Loki's lips sewn shut. Thor fishes for the World Serpent Sent to fetch a giant's brewing kettle, Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir, baits his hook with an ox-head and hauls the Midgard Serpent up to the gunwale. The poem Hymiskvíða and Snorri tell it differently, and disagree on how it ended. Thor in the hall of Geirröðr To save his own life Loki promises to bring Thor, unarmed, to the giant Geirröðr. A friendly giantess lends Thor a belt, gloves and staff; he survives a flooding river, a rising chair and a red-hot iron bar, and kills Geirröðr and his daughters. Thor's journey to Útgarða-Loki Thor travels east with Loki, Þjálfi and Röskva, sleeps in a giant's glove, and loses every contest in the hall of Útgarða-Loki: to fire, to thought, to the sea, to the World Serpent and to old age. Only at parting does he learn he was tricked. Thrym steals Thor's hammer Thor wakes to find Mjölnir gone. The giant Þrymr will return it only for Freyja as his bride, so Thor goes to the wedding himself, in a veil, with Loki as his bridesmaid.

Related

Sigyn Loki's wife, counted among the goddesses, who stays beside her bound husband holding a bowl to catch the snake venom dripping onto his face. Angrboða The giantess in Jötunheim with whom Loki fathered Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel; the sources name her and say almost nothing else. Fenrir The giant wolf fathered by Loki on Angrboða, raised by the gods, bound with the fetter Gleipnir at the cost of Týr's hand, and fated to swallow Odin at Ragnarök. Jörmungandr Loki's serpent son, thrown by Odin into the ocean, where it grew to encircle the whole earth; Thor's great enemy, whom he hooks once and kills at Ragnarök. Hel Loki's daughter by Angrboða, half dark and half flesh-coloured, whom Odin cast down to rule the dead in Niflheim; she holds Baldr and sets the price of his return. Sleipnir Odin's grey, eight-legged horse, best of all steeds, foaled by Loki after he lured away the giant builder's stallion Svaðilfari. Baldr Odin and Frigg's son, the brightest and best-loved of the gods. His death by a mistletoe dart, thrown by his blind brother Höðr, is the first great loss on the road to Ragnarök. Odin Óðinn Chief of the Æsir: a one-eyed god of wisdom, poetry, magic, war and the dead, who gave an eye and hanged himself on a tree for knowledge, and who dies at Ragnarök. Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent. Heimdall Heimdallr The watchman of the gods, born of nine mothers, who guards Bifröst from his hall Himinbjörg and will blow the Gjallarhorn when Ragnarök begins. Ragnarök The foretold end of the gods' world: wolves swallow sun and moon, Loki and the monsters break loose, the gods fall in battle, Surtr burns the earth, and a new world rises.