When we talk about Loki, Thor’s bastard brother and the god of fire from Norse mythology, we are faced with one of the most ambiguous and complex characters in Viking cosmogony. Did you know that even though he was the son of Odin and the brother of Thor, he was actually born a giant?
Discover all the secrets of Loki, the father of the wolf and the serpent who killed Odin and Thor, and Hela, the goddess of death in Norse mythology.
- Meet Thor, the god of thunder from Norse mythology
Who is Loki in Norse mythology?
Starting from the basis that Loki is for the texts of Norse mythology the representation of deception, falsehood, intrigue and lies, the question of who is Loki is a real mystery. In general, we can say that Loki is the son of Odin and brother of Thor, god of fire in the pantheon of Aesir gods who live in Asgard.
However, Norse mythology reserves for him a dark role, «the origin of all evil», because he enters the realm of the gods being in reality a giant. Just as he seduces the supreme god Odin into taking him in as a son, so Loki manages to trick the other gods into getting what he wants.
- Discover here the giants, these magical creatures present in various mythologies
In addition to being the protagonist in the death of Balder, the son of Odin and brother of Thor, the role of Loki is momentous for Ragnarökthe battle for the fate of the world in which the gods and the giants face each other.
Loki, along with his partner the giantess Angrboda, is the father of the wolf Fenrir, who kills Odin, and the serpent Jörmungand, who ends Thor’s life. He is also Hela’s father., the goddess of death who reigns in the valley of shadows, the Niflheim. Her offspring does not end here, because among other children, she, together with a mare, gave rise to Sleipnir, the great mythological horse.
- Find out who Fenrir is, the wolf from Norse mythology that inspired Marvel
In history, Loki remains in the shadows, because having no cult he cannot be considered a god, and stand like a giant. In spite of everything, some neopagan cults pay him devotion and thus consider him a minor god. Furthermore, in some scriptures such as the 13th century ballad «Loka Táttur», he is presented as a god friendly to men.
How is Loki, the god of fire and swindler god
Loki’s representation in Norse mythology is ambiguous, as he is sometimes seen helping the gods and, in other cases, resorting to deceit and lies. However, the idea of a being that infiltrates the court of the gods to create conflicts between them mthrough intrigue and seduction games.
It is therefore a perfidious and evil being, interested and cruel, a representation of cunning and the good/evil dualism, because he is actually invested as god of fire, and like fire, it has a positive and a negative dimension. His great quality is to transform his physical appearance: he appears on different occasions in the form of a mare, a seal, a fly and an old woman.
But the great role of Loki in Norse mythology begins to unfold with Balder’s death incidentwhich we will describe below.
According to the myth, Balder, son of Odin, had had a series of premonitory dreams that his mother interpreted as death. Ella Frigg’s mother made all the creatures of the world promise not to harm her son Balder, but I didn’t count on Loki’s cunningwho sought revenge because the gods had kidnapped his children Fenrir, Hela and Jörmungand.
- Discover here Hela, the goddess of death from Norse mythology
Loki, disguised as an old woman, goes to Frigg to extract the only thing in the world that had not promised to harm Balder: mistletoe. Balder, believing himself invincible, had organized a series of games to show that nothing could kill him, and he asked his blind brother Hodr to shoot him with an arrow. Loki took the opportunity to give him an arrow of mistletoe which ended Balder’s life.
When the gods discover Loki’s deception they imprison him and tie him with the entrails of his son to three rocks while the goddess Skadi places a snake on him that sprays poison on his face and makes him shiver, causing earthquakes. In destiny it is written that at Ragnarök Loki will break free and will face the god Heimdal, dying both.
Loki in fiction as a Marvel character
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki is an antagonist character based on the mythological being of Loki, the trickster god of Norse mythology. He is played by actor Tom Hiddleston, and has been gaining weight in the movies of that factory until his last appearance in infinity warwhere he dies at the hands of the mad titan Thanos.
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In fact, as a comic book character, he was created by writer Stan Lee, screenwriter Larry Lieber, and artist Jack Kirby to embody the modern version of the Norse god in the Journey into Mystery superhero saga: his first appearance was in August 1949.
This is just one of his appearances in popular culture, as of all the gods in Norse mythology, Loki is one of the most active. To begin with, many consider it the alter ego of the god Prometheus in Greco-Roman culturebecause he stole fire from the gods and was also chained to a stone.
Loki was also used as the main villain in Marvel’s Thor comic series, and thus was also reproduced as an antagonist throughout the movie saga. The Avengers. in the tv series Supernatural (2005), the archangel Gabriel appears before the gods pagans in the form of Loki so as not to be discovered.
Loki also inspires characters in the popular series star gate and in the movie The mask, starring Jim Carrey. As a curiosity, Loki is the volcano located on the moon Iothe closest to Jupiter, and also gives its name to the volcanic fissure found in Iceland.