Who Is Loki in Norse Mythology?
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Loki is the trickster, a shape shifter who solves the gods' problems as often as he causes them. Calling him the villain misses the point, because for most of the surviving stories Loki is the one the gods travel with, argue with and rely on.
What Loki is
Loki is usually described as being of giant descent yet living among the gods in Asgard. That in between position matters. In Norse mythology he belongs to neither side completely, which is exactly what makes him useful and dangerous.
He is not a god of anything in particular. He has no domain like thunder or the sea. What he has is cleverness, a talent for shape shifting and a habit of talking his way out of trouble he created himself.
The trouble he causes and fixes
A recurring pattern in Norse mythology is that Loki creates a crisis and then resolves it, often at his own expense. He cuts off the goddess Sif's hair and then obtains golden hair, plus several other treasures, from the dwarves.
He also gets the gods their greatest possessions this way, including Thor's hammer and Odin's spear. Loki turns into a mare on one occasion and becomes the mother of Odin's eight legged horse Sleipnir. These are not the actions of a straightforward enemy.
Where it turns dark
The mood changes with the death of Balder, the most loved of the gods. Loki discovers the one thing that can harm him and arranges his death, then blocks the attempt to bring him back.
For that the gods bind Loki beneath the earth with a serpent dripping venom above him. In Norse mythology he stays there until Ragnarok, when he breaks free and fights against the gods at the end of the world.
Why tricksters exist in mythology
Loki is not unique. Many traditions have a figure who breaks rules and reshapes the world by doing it. What they usually share is:
- •The ability to change form or identity
- •A talent for exposing pride and pretension
- •A habit of bringing useful things through bad behaviour
- •An uncomfortable place between the community and the outside
Loki's children
Loki's offspring are central to how Norse mythology ends. With a giantess he fathered three: the wolf Fenrir, the world serpent Jormungandr, and Hel, who rules over much of the realm of the dead.
The gods dealt with each in turn, binding Fenrir with a magical ribbon, casting the serpent into the ocean and giving Hel her realm. All three return at Ragnarok, and Fenrir kills Odin while the serpent kills Thor. The gods' attempts to contain Loki's children arguably guarantee the outcome they were trying to prevent, which is a familiar shape in mythology everywhere.
The takeaway
Loki in Norse mythology is the shape shifting trickster who helps and harms in equal measure, and reading him as simply evil hides what the old stories were actually doing with him.