Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained.
In today’s video, we’re going to be discussing Loki.
Let’s get into it.
As capricious as the wind, as dependable as a guttering flame, and ultimately, as devastating
as an extinction-level meteorite impact, Loki, the wily trickster, is an enigmatic figure
in Norse mythology.
He’s counted amongst the Aesir gods, but he’ll fight for the giants come Ragnarok.
Despite his antics regularly miring the gods in predicaments, his cunning and cleverness
usually extricates them before too much damage is caused, even creating profit for the gods
on many occasions.
But this pattern ceases to continue in the mythic future.
In the end, the darker part of Loki’s nature eventually wins out, and the trouble he causes
precipitates the death of the gods and the destruction of the world during Ragnarok,
the great, ever-looming, all-consuming conflict.
In Norse mythology, what tribe someone belongs to is contingent on their paternal pedigree.
This is to say that people took after the father when being categorized.
Most of the Aesir gods, the gods who dwell in Asgard are half-giant, but despite their
split heritage, are gods, not giants, because their fathers were gods.
Similarly, those whose fathers were giants, even if their mothers were gods, are considered
to be of giant-kind.
That kinship was reckoned through the paternal line is why it is thought that Loki was a
giant, despite him living in Asgard and being counted amongst the Aesir gods.
His father was a giant called Farbauti, and his mother, called either Laufey or Nal, was
of ambiguous descent, being either a god or a giant.
Loki had two brothers, Byleist and Helblindi, though little is known of either of them,
and he had five children.
Two of them, Nari and Narfi, were human-like in appearance, and he sired them by his wife,
Sigyn.
The other three, Hel, who presided over the underworld, Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent,
and Fenrir, a monstrous wolf, he sired by the ogress Angrboda.
We’ll discuss these children in more detail later in the video as we unpack various aspects
of Loki’s story.
Like Norse mythology as a whole, Loki’s contributions can be divided into three parts:
those of the mythic past, the mythic present - here meaning events that took place relatively
recently - and the mythic future.
And interestingly, it seems as though Loki’s allegiance vacillated, changing from period
to period.
In the past you could say he opposed the gods as he sired his trio of monstrous children,
all of whom would prove instrumental to the destruction of Asgard and the world.
In the present, he was more of a grey character that leaned slightly more towards good than
bad.
In this iteration, he simultaneously played the roles of both breaker and fixer, often
embroiling the gods in difficult situations, but then, using his guile, disentangling and
delivering the gods from those very same difficult situations.
In the future, Loki reverts back to how he was in the past, reprising his previous persona
bent on dealing death and destruction.
He orchestrates the death of Baldr, the main event said to herald the coming of Ragnarok;
he and Hel conspire to prevent Baldr from being resurrected, which would have potentially
forestalled Ragnarok; the Midgard Serpent kills Thor; Fenrir kills Odin, and Loki leads
the hordes of Hel against the gods during Ragnarok.
When looking at all of the events in the aggregate, it’s difficult to overstate Loki’s role
in the events leading up to Ragnarok and in the events of Ragnarok itself.
From here, we’re going to go over Loki’s life chronologically, focusing on the most
important moments in each time period.
As for what happened in the past, we’ve mostly covered it.
He sired three monstrous children by Angrboda, three god-banes that would wreak ruin upon
Asgard in the future.
Also, Loki and Odin were blood brothers, and presumably the ritual that bonded them in
this way was carried out in the past.
It is thought that Odin bonded himself in this way in an attempt to bring Loki into
the fold to preempt the evil he would perpetrate in the future.
In the present, Loki plays a central role in a broad array of miscellaneous myths.
There’s too many to cover with any semblance of comprehensiveness, so we’ll just focus
on a couple.
In these the pattern of Loki creating and then resolving problems will be apparent.
The first that comes to mind begins with Loki shearing Sif’s, Thor’s wife’s, golden
hair.
After much evading and eluding, Loki is eventually caught by Thor.
Loki is able to avoid his well-deserved thrashing by promising to seek out the dwarves and have
them craft new golden hair.
In this venture, Loki is superlatively successful.
Not only does he return with new golden hair, he returns bearing five additional treasures:
Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, Gungnir, Odin’s spear, Draupnir, a golden ring that replicated
itself eight times every nine nights, Gullinbursti, a golden boar that emitted light and could
travel across land, sea and sky, and Skidbladnir, a ship whose sails were always pregnant with
wind, and which could be folded up like cloth so that it fit in one’s pocket.
Another such myth centers on a giant smith soliciting his services to the gods, offering
to build them an impregnable fortress, one that could repel any number of mountain trolls
or frost giants.
He claimed completing its construction would take only three seasons, so what he asked
for as payment was exorbitant.
His price was the sun, the moon, and the goddess Freyja’s hand in marriage.
After taking some time to discuss the matter amongst themselves, the gods agreed, but only
if the fortress was built in a single winter.
They thought the terms impossible for any one person to meet, so there seemed to be
little risk in betting such treasures; but the rate at which the giant raised the walls
was astonishing, and it quickly became apparent that he was going to finish on time.
Again, the gods convened their council and, gathered as they were, came to realize that
it was Loki who advised them to make the wager with the giant.
With the blame laid at his feet, Loki was promised a bad death if the giant finished
on time.
He transformed himself into a mare and galloped to the quarry where the giant and his great
horse went to gather stones.
The stallion became mad with lust.
He broke free of his harness and raced after Loki, and presumably there was more than just
running that happened; because sometime later, Loki birthed Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse
that became Odin’s steed.
This delay cost the giant his payment.
He flew into a rage and was killed by Thor.
The mythic future is when things really take a turn for the worse, and terminally so.
Baldr’s death was the harbinger of Ragnarok, meaning it was of paramount importance that
he not die.
His mother, Frigg, went so far as to secure oaths from everything in all the nine realms,
literally everything: “fire and water, iron and all kinds of metal, stones, the earth,
trees, diseases, animals, birds, poisons, and snakes” - you name it.
There was but one chink in this armor: mistletoe was thought to be so innocuous that it wasn’t
worth bothering over, meaning no oath was secured from it.
Baldr’s virtual invulnerability became a source of sport for the gods, who would shoot,
slice and stab him with all manner of weapon to no effect.
Loki saw an opportunity to exploit this situation, and so began the downward spiral that would
lead to his death, the death of the gods, and the destruction of the world.
Under the guise of kindness, Loki involved the blind god Hod in the fun, but the weapon
he gave him was a mistletoe projectile so that, when struck, Baldr fell dead.
Hermod was dispatched to the underworld to implore Hel to release Baldr's soul, so he
could be resurrected and Ragnarok forestalled.
Hel agreed, but only if everything in all the world wept for Baldr, and to this end,
the gods came tantalizingly close; but despite their best efforts, Thokk, a cave dwelling
giantess wouldn’t weep, so Baldr remained lost.
Thokk is thought to be none other than Loki in disguise.
At this point, having brought about Baldr’s death and, subsequently, impeding the resurrection,
Loki had pushed things too far, and he knew it.
He fled and managed to hide for a while, but the gods eventually caught up with and captured
him.
Loki and his two sons were brought into a cave.
One of the sons was transformed into a wolf and, in this form, ripped the other son apart.
The entrails of the dead son were then used to bind Loki to three stones.
A snake was placed above Loki’s head so that its poison constantly dripped onto his
face.
Loki’s wife held up a bowl to catch the venom as it dripped down, but every so often,
the bowl would fill and need emptying.
In her absence, the venom would drip onto Loki’s face, and the pain was so excruciating
that it caused him to writhe and convulse.
It was thought that these especially torturous moments were what caused earthquakes.
And in this state of perpetual anguish Loki would stay - that is, until the onset of Ragnarok
broke all bonds, allowing him to escape
Come Ragnarok, every manner of destruction becomes unleashed.
The fire giants and the frost giants send their armies against Asgard.
The sun and moon are devoured by giant wolves.
The Midgard Serpent drowns the world and kills Thor.
Fenrir breaks free and kills Odin.
The rainbow bridge that connects Asgard to Midgard shatters, and fire consumes what’s
left.
Loki himself leads the hordes of Hel against Asgard.
His life is punctuated by a duel against Heimdall.
They both claim each other's lives
Fortunately, Ragnarok isn’t a true end.
The next age rises up from the ashes of the old, the fires die down, the waters recede,
and the world reemerges fertile and revitalized.
Some of the younger gods, like Thor’s children, survive.
Baldr and Hod return from Hel, and the human race repopulates from a pair of people, one
man and one woman, who managed to survive the Cataclysm by hiding in Hoddmimir’s Wood.
And that’s it for this video!
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