Loki

• Mythical Number: #3870
• Culture:   Norse
• Attribute:   Celestial
• Attribute:   Humanoid
• Attribute:   Sorcery and Medicinal
• Behaviour:   Friendly and Dangerous

A famous Giant in Norse mythology who has the ability to transform into animals. Loki is known as the mischievous Giant who helps the Aesir gods but in many stories he betrays them.

Loki was born from Farbauti and Laufey, an Aesir and a Frost Giant. Loki with his consort, Angrboda gave birth to some monstrosities such as the goddess Hel who commanded the Underworld, the Fenris wolf, and the colossal Midgard Serpent. He also fathered Vali and Narvi. His wife is Sigyn and he had a son called Nari or Narfi. Bizarrely the god mated with the horse Svaoilfari and gave birth to the eight-legged horse Slepnir which became the mount of Odin the leader of the gods.

In many tales Loki transforms into animals such as birds to defeat the Giants and prove the gods as superior beings. In one tale, Loki transforms into a fish. After he turned into the fish, the gods caught him in a net, one that he had made for one of the gods. Despite these many attempts to defeat the Giants, in the end Loki is bound up by a cosmic snake. Above Loki drips a painful and poisonous liquid that is caught in a bowl. Every so often this bowl, when full needs to be collected. His wife Sigyn comes to empty the bowl, but whilst that is happening, there is now bowl above Loki’s head to protect him and the poison drips on him causing much pain. In the end he breaks free from the bonds and joins in the epic war Ragnarok where Loki takes the side of the monsters and attacks the gods. He also arranges for the death of Odin’s son Baldr. Loki tricks the blind god Hod to touch Baldr with mistletoe that is highly poisonous.

The story of Baldr's demise began when he was having nightmares about his coming death. Odin, his father, was upset with this and decided to call upon all living creatures to have them swear that they will never hurt him. He did leave out one creature, the mistletoe, as it was the most innocent plant of all. So, one day, the gods were fooling around with Baldr by hitting him with everything they had, not leaving a scratch. While Hod, who was blind, was going to shoot Balder with his bow and arrow, Loki tried to "help" the blind man, but he gave Hod an arrow with a mistletoe on the tip. The arrow pierced killed Baldr, as the mistletoe was the only thing that could ever hurt him. Aside from that detail. Loki was (according to the Norwegian tales) imprisoned under a rock, in the human world after he killed Baldr. Only to wait for a naive human to free him, so that he could return to deceive the gods and put Ragnarok in motion.

Loki aided the gods when a Giant came to Asgard to build a wall around the gods home. The Giant was winning the bet as he was performing the task at a much quicker rate than what the gods had gambled for. Loki transformed himself into a mare and led the Giant’s horse away to distract the Giant from his work. Loki rescues Idunn by using a cloak feathers which was worn by the goddess of the hunt, Freya. He uses this to fly across Jotenheim the land of the giants. He also accompanies Thor to a farm where by they eat some goats whose skeletons are re-animated by Thor. The goats then became the stead for Thor’s chariot. Loki also accompanies Thor to journey deep into the Giant’s realm to defeat the Giant Utgardlogi. Also at one time when fleeing from a banquet of the gods of which he was not invited, Loki transformed into a fish to swim away.

Give Loki a rating:

  

    Loki is awesome. (140 votes)

• 5 = I want Loki as my pet!
• 4 = Awesome.
• 3 = Interesting.
• 2 = Nothing special.
• 1 = Loki should be put in a recycling bin.