Turned himself into a mare and gave birth to an eight-legged foal
He lured the stallion Svaðilfari away so the giant builder of Asgard's wall would miss his deadline.
Myth · Norse
Loki
Norse mythology — trickster among the Æsir
Loki is the shape-shifting trickster of Norse myth, a giant's son counted among the gods and Odin's sworn blood-brother. He causes the Æsir their worst trouble and then talks or transforms his way out of it, winning them their greatest treasures on the way. After he engineers the death of Baldr he is bound beneath a dripping serpent until Ragnarök, when he steers the ship of the dead against Asgard.
How to spot them
- ▸Shape-shifter: a mare, a salmon, a fly, a falcon, an old woman
- ▸A giant's son who is nonetheless Odin's blood-brother and lives in Asgard
- ▸Bound on three stones under a venom-dripping snake, his wife holding a bowl above his face
- ▸Quiz clue: 'son of Fárbauti and Laufey', 'father of the wolf, the serpent and the queen of the dead'
Stories & episodes
Cut off a goddess's golden hair and had to buy the gods six treasures to pay for it
The dwarves' wager that produced Mjölnir, Gungnir, Draupnir, Skíðblaðnir, Gullinbursti and new hair of gold for Sif.
Guided a blind god's hand so that a dart of mistletoe flew true
Then, as the giantess Þökk, he alone refused to weep, and the dead god stayed in Hel.
Insulted every god and goddess in turn at Ægir's feast
Lokasenna — the flyting ends only when Thor arrives with his hammer.
Caught in his own invented fishing net while hiding as a salmon
At the waterfall of Franangr; the gods then bound him with his son's entrails.
Steers a ship made from dead men's nails at the end of the world
He and Heimdall kill each other on the plain of Vígríðr.
Quick-fire facts
- •His parents are the giant Fárbauti and Laufey (also called Nál); his brothers are named as Býleistr and Helblindi
- •By the giantess Angrboða he fathered Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel
- •His wife Sigyn holds a basin to catch the serpent's venom; when she turns away to empty it, his writhing causes earthquakes
- •His bonds are made from the entrails of his son Narfi, after his son Váli is turned into a wolf and kills his brother
- •He also appears as Loptr and Hveðrungr; the Gosforth Cross and the Snaptun hearth-stone, which shows a scarred and sewn mouth, are read as images of him
- •Unlike Odin, Thor or Freyr, he has left no place names and no clear evidence of worship
- •He is the fly that stings the dwarf at the bellows, which is why Mjölnir's handle came out short
- •He is not Thor's brother in the Eddas — that is a Marvel invention
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Sources
- Sacred Texts Archive — The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation) Lokasenna and Völuspá
- Snorri Sturluson — The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) Gylfaginning for the binding; Skáldskaparmál for the dwarves' treasures
- World History Encyclopedia — Loki