Seiðr Loom

A myth retold · about 6 minutes

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.

Loki leaves the hall and threatens the Æsir with fire by Frølich
Loki leaves the hall and threatens the Æsir with fire by Frølich, Lorenz Frølich (1895). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

A senna is a flyting, a formal exchange of insults. Lokasenna is the most extreme one in Old Norse: sixty-five stanzas in which Loki stands in a hall full of gods and tells each of them, in public, the worst thing he knows about them. The gods answer, and nobody wins the argument; it ends only when Thor arrives with his hammer.

The feast and the killing

The prose introduction sets the scene. The sea-giant Ægir (also called Gymir) has brewed ale for the gods in the great kettle that Thor won from Hymir, a story told in Hymiskvida Lokasenna, prose 1. Nearly everyone is there: Odin and Frigg, Sif, Bragi and Iðunn, one-handed Týr, Njörðr and Skaði, Freyr and Freyja, Odin's son Víðarr, Freyr's servants Byggvir and Beyla, many gods and elves, and Loki. Thor is away on a journey in the east Lokasenna, prose 1.

The hall is lit by shining gold instead of fire, the ale serves itself, and "great was the peace." The guests praise Ægir's two servants, Fimafeng and Eldir. Loki cannot stand it and kills Fimafeng. The gods shake their shields, shout at him and drive him into the forest, then sit down to drink again Lokasenna, prose 2.

Loki comes back. Outside he meets Eldir and asks what the gods are talking about. Their weapons and their prowess, says Eldir, and no one in there has a kind word for Loki Lokasenna 1-2. Loki states his intention plainly:

"In shall I go into Ægir's hall,For the feast I fain would see;Bale and hatred I bring to the gods,And their mead with venom I mix."Lokasenna 3

A seat at the table

When Loki walks in, the hall goes silent Lokasenna, prose 3. He asks for a drink, calling himself Lopt, and asks why the gods sit there "swollen with pride" Lokasenna 6-7. Bragi refuses him a seat. Loki goes over Bragi's head to Odin: in the old days they mixed their blood, and Odin swore never to drink ale unless it was brought for both of them Lokasenna 9. Odin gives in. He tells Víðarr to make room for "the wolf's father", so that Loki will say nothing evil in Ægir's hall Lokasenna 10. Víðarr pours, and Loki drinks a toast to every god and goddess except Bragi Lokasenna, prose 4 Lokasenna 11.

The round of insults

From here the poem runs in pairs: a god speaks, Loki answers, usually with "Be silent!" and an accusation. Bragi offers a horse, a sword and a ring to keep the peace; Loki calls him the most cowardly god in the hall Lokasenna 12-13. Iðunn tries to calm her husband; Loki says she once embraced her brother's killer Lokasenna 16-17. Gefjun tries to make peace; Loki says she sold herself for a necklace Lokasenna 19-20.

Odin warns Loki that Gefjun knows fate as well as he does. Loki turns on Odin: he gives victory to cowards. Odin answers that Loki spent eight winters under the earth as a milkmaid and bore children. Loki replies that Odin practised women's magic on Samsey and went among men in a witch's shape Lokasenna 21-24. Frigg tells them both that old deeds should not be raked up. Loki accuses her of sleeping with Odin's brothers Vili and Vé Lokasenna 25-26. Frigg says that if she had a son like Baldr in the hall, Loki would not leave alive. Loki's answer is the cruellest line in the poem:

Loki spake:"Thou wilt then, Frigg, that further I tellOf the ill that now I know;Mine is the blame that Baldr no moreThou seest ride home to the hall."Lokasenna 28

It goes on in the same way. Freyja has slept with every god and elf present, and with her brother Lokasenna 30-32. Njörðr was a hostage, and the daughters of Hymir used his mouth as a privy; Freyr is the child of Njörðr's union with his own sister Lokasenna 34-36. Týr lost his hand to Fenrir, and his wife had a son by Loki Lokasenna 38-40. Freyr bought Gerðr with gold and gave away his sword, and will stand weaponless when Muspell's sons ride Lokasenna 42. Byggvir hid in the straw when men went to fight Lokasenna 46. Heimdallr is doomed to stand forever stiff-backed as the gods' watchman Lokasenna 48.

Several of the gods answer with threats that sound like prophecies. Týr says the wolf waits in fetters for the doom of the gods; Freyr says Loki will be bound too if he does not hold his tongue Lokasenna 39 Lokasenna 41. Skaði is the most exact:

Skathi spake:"Light art thou, Loki, but longer thou mayst notIn freedom flourish thy tail;On the rocks the gods bind thee with bowels tornForth from thy frost-cold son."Lokasenna 49

Loki answers that he was "first and last" at the killing of her father Þjazi, and that she once invited him to her bed Lokasenna 50-52. Then Sif comes forward and pours him mead in a crystal cup, saying that she at least is blameless Lokasenna, prose 5 Lokasenna 53. Loki says she is not: he himself had her once, behind Thor's back Lokasenna 54.

Thor comes home

Beyla says the mountains are shaking: Thor must be coming Lokasenna 55. Loki insults her too. Then Thor arrives Lokasenna, prose 6 and says the same thing four times: "Unmanly one, cease, or the mighty hammer, Mjollnir, shall close thy mouth" Lokasenna 57. Each time he adds a different threat, and each time Loki answers with a jibe. Thor will be less fierce when the wolf swallows his father; Thor once hid in the thumb of a giant's glove; Thor could not open Skrýmir's food bag Lokasenna 58 Lokasenna 60 Lokasenna 62.

After the fourth threat Loki gives way. He has said everything he meant to say, he tells the gods, but he will leave because of Thor alone, "for thou fightest well, I ween" Lokasenna 64. His last words are a curse on the host: Ægir will never brew such a feast again, and fire will play over everything he owns Lokasenna 65. A closing prose passage tells how the gods caught and bound him afterwards (see The binding of Loki) Lokasenna, prose 7.

Where the story comes from

Lokasenna survives in the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda (13th century). Its age is debated, with proposals ranging from the tenth century to the twelfth or later. The framing prose is the work of the compiler, not part of the poem. Snorri does not retell the flyting, but he knew the story. In Skáldskaparmál he summarises it: Ægir invites the gods to a feast lit by gold, Thor is away in the east killing trolls, and Loki "bandied sharp words with all the gods, and slew one of Ægir's thralls", whom he calls Five-Finger; the other thrall he calls Fire-Kindler Skáldskaparmál 33. In Gylfaginning he quotes one stanza of the poem Gylfaginning 20.

The poem's value lies in the mythology hidden in Loki's jibes. Many of them refer to stories told nowhere else, or only by Snorri: Odin's magic on Samsey, Gefjun's necklace, Týr's wife, Loki's eight winters underground, Skaði's invitation. Some match surviving stories closely. Týr's hand and Fenrir, Freyr's sword given for Gerðr (Freyr and Gerðr), Thor in the glove and Skrýmir's bag (Thor's journey to Útgarða-Loki), and Loki's part in Þjazi's death (The theft of Iðunn and her apples) are all told elsewhere. One detail does not match: the prose ending of the poem disagrees with Snorri about which of Loki's sons was killed (see The binding of Loki).

Reading it today

Readers disagree about the poem's tone. Some see it as satire, perhaps by a Christian poet mocking the old gods; others think a pagan audience could laugh at its gods without losing faith in them, and note that the insults work only if listeners already know the myths. The poem is also full of foreboding: the gods' threats and Loki's answers keep pointing ahead to Fenrir's escape, Freyr's death, Odin swallowed by the wolf and Loki bound, which is to say to Ragnarök.

Key passages

Loki might not endure that, and he slew Fimafeng.
Lokasenna, prose 2 The prose introduction gives the trigger: Loki kills one of Ægir's servants and is driven out.
Bale and hatred I bring to the gods, And their mead with venom I mix.
Lokasenna 3 Loki announces his purpose before he goes back in.
Remember, Othin, in olden days That we both our blood have mixed
Lokasenna 9 Loki claims his seat by reminding Odin that they swore blood-brotherhood.
Mine is the blame that Baldr no more Thou seest ride home to the hall.
Lokasenna 28 Loki boasts to Frigg of his part in Baldr's death.
On the rocks the gods bind thee with bowels torn Forth from thy frost-cold son.
Lokasenna 49 Skaði foretells Loki's punishment.
The slayer of Hrungnir shall send thee to hell, And down to the gate of death.
Lokasenna 63 Thor's fourth threat, after which Loki finally leaves.

Who appears

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. Ægir The sea in person and the gods' brewer: his hall is where they feast, his wife is Rán and his nine daughters are the waves. Snorri also makes him the listener to whom Bragi tells the myths in Skáldskaparmál. 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. Frigg Odin's wife and the foremost of the goddesses: she knows the fates of all but never speaks them, and her failed attempt to protect her son Baldr is the hinge of Norse myth. Bragi The god of poetry and eloquence, husband of Iðunn. In Snorri's Skáldskaparmál he is the storyteller who explains the art of poetry to the sea-giant Ægir. Iðunn The goddess who keeps the apples that keep the gods young. When the giant Þjazi carried her off, the gods began to age, and Loki had to steal her back. Gefjun The goddess who ploughed the Danish island of Zealand out of Sweden with four oxen, her sons by a giant. Snorri also calls her a virgin who receives women who die unmarried. Freyja The Vanir goddess of love, wealth and the slain: daughter of Njörðr, owner of the necklace Brísingamen, who takes half of those who fall in battle to her hall Fólkvangr. Njörðr The Vanir god of the sea, winds and wealth, father of Freyr and Freyja. Sent to the Æsir as a hostage after their war, he married the giantess Skaði, an ill-matched union of sea and mountain. Týr The one-handed god of battle and courage, who put his hand in the wolf Fenrir's mouth as a pledge so that the gods could bind it, and lost the hand. Freyr The Vanir god of rain, sunshine, harvest and peace, son of Njörðr. He gave away his sword to win the giantess Gerðr, and will fall unarmed against Surtr at Ragnarök. 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. Skaði A giantess who came to Asgard armed to avenge her father Þjazi, accepted a husband instead, and went back to the mountains to hunt on skis when the marriage to Njörðr failed. Sif Thor's wife, mother of Ullr and Þrúðr, famous for the golden hair the dwarfs made for her after Loki cut off her own. 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. Víðarr The silent son of Odin and the giantess Gríðr, nearly as strong as Thor. At Ragnarök he avenges his father by tearing apart the wolf Fenrir, and he survives into the new world. 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. 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. Gerðr A giant's daughter so beautiful that light shone from her arms, whom Freyr's servant Skírnir won for him by bribes, threats and a runic curse. Þjazi A giant who, in the shape of an eagle, forced Loki to lure Iðunn and her apples out of Asgard. The gods burned his wings at their walls and killed him; his eyes became stars. Mjölnir Mjöllnir Thor's short-handled hammer, forged by the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Sindri: it never misses, always returns to his hand, kills giants, and hallows brides, pyres and the dead goats it brings back to life.