Loki is the most ambiguous figure in Norse mythology. He lives among the gods of Asgard, yet he is the son of a giant. He helps them and betrays them, rescues them from trouble he himself got them into, procures their most precious treasures and finally brings about the death of the best loved among them. Scholars regard him as an example of the trickster, the deceiver found in the mythologies of many peoples. To understand Loki is to understand a force every tradition has had to reckon with: necessary disorder, which breaks balances and makes change possible, but which can also become destructive.
His origins
According to Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Loki is the son of the giant Fárbauti and of Laufey. Though not of the gods' lineage by birth, he lives among them. The poem Lokasenna alludes to an ancient blood pact with Odin: the two are said to have mixed their blood in remote times. Loki is thus an outsider who has become family, an external element welcomed into the heart of the divine order.
The wall of Asgard and the birth of Sleipnir
One of the best-known myths tells how a builder offered to raise a wall around Asgard in a single winter, asking in return for the goddess Freyja, the sun and the moon. On Loki's advice the gods accept, convinced the task is impossible. But the builder has an extraordinary horse, Svaðilfari, and the work goes quickly.
Alarmed, the gods force Loki to fix things. He turns himself into a mare and lures the stallion away, so that the wall is not finished in time. Some time later Loki gives birth to a grey foal with eight legs: Sleipnir, who will become Odin's horse.
The episode shows Loki's paradox: the problem arises from his advice, the solution from his cunning, and the final outcome is a precious gift.
The dwarves' treasures
Another story begins with a cruel prank: Loki cuts off the golden hair of Sif, Thor's wife. Threatened by the furious god, he promises to make amends and turns to the dwarves. He obtains a head of golden hair that grows like real hair, the ship Skíðblaðnir and Odin's spear, Gungnir.
Then he wagers his own head with two other dwarves, Brokkr and Eitri, claiming they cannot do better. The two forge the golden boar Gullinbursti, the ring Draupnir and the hammer Mjöllnir. During the work Loki, turned into a fly, stings Brokkr to disturb him, which is why the hammer's handle ends up rather short. The gods judge Mjöllnir the most precious gift, and Loki loses the wager. He saves his head with a quibble, but the dwarves sew his lips shut.
Once again, from the disorder Loki causes come the gods' most important possessions.
Loki's children
With the giantess Angrboða, Loki fathers three terrible children: the wolf Fenrir, the world serpent Jörmungandr and Hel, mistress of the dead. The gods, fearing them, send them away: Fenrir is bound, the serpent thrown into the ocean that surrounds the earth, Hel sent to rule the realm of the dead. It is they who, at Ragnarök, will fight against the gods.
From mockery to rupture
Over the course of the myths Loki's role grows steadily darker. After causing Baldr's death, Loki turns up at a feast of the gods and insults them one by one, exposing their faults and weaknesses: this is the content of the poem Lokasenna, "Loki's quarrel". The trickster no longer amuses: he unmasks.
The binding
In the end the gods capture him. According to Snorri, Loki had hidden by turning into a salmon, but he was caught in a net. He is bound to three stones, and above his face a serpent is placed that drips venom. His wife Sigyn stays by his side and catches the venom in a bowl. When she must step away to empty it, the venom falls on Loki, who writhes: according to the myth, this is the cause of earthquakes.
The figure of Sigyn is moving: silent faithfulness that eases the pain, even if it cannot remove it.
Loki and the trickster's function
In the world's mythologies the trickster performs specific functions:
| Function | Example in Loki |
|---|---|
| Breaks the rules | advises risky bargains, insults the gods |
| Solves through cunning | the wall of Asgard, the dwarves' treasures |
| Brings forth the new | Sleipnir, Mjöllnir, Draupnir |
| Exposes hypocrisy | the Lokasenna |
| Leads to the final crisis | the death of Baldr and Ragnarök |
In inner terms Loki represents the part of us that cannot stand an order that is too rigid: irony, impulse, irreverent creativity. Without it life would become static. But if this part is not recognised and integrated, it can turn into a destructive force.
In short
- Loki, born of giants, lives among the gods as an ambiguous and indispensable element.
- His meddling gives rise to Sleipnir and the dwarves' treasures, among them the hammer Mjöllnir.
- From his children, Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel, will come the forces of Ragnarök.
- After Baldr's death and the Lokasenna he is bound, attended by the faithful Sigyn.
- As trickster he represents creative disorder which, if not integrated, becomes destructive.
