Daily Deity #51 Loki

*Let me explain something before you go on reading. There are going to be a large amount of stories and other gods that I will be talking about in this Daily Deity. For some I will go into depth, others I will briefly mention, but chances are that I will give them individual attention in the future. That being said, if there are questions, please feel free to ask.*

That being said I have been waiting for the right moment to do Loki since I first came up with the idea of doing Daily Deity. I figured what a better day for the trickster god than April Fool's Day!

The place where I will start is what Loki is known for. He is said to have been a very handsome god, which explains the decent amount of children he has. He's a fire god. And most importantly, he's the trickster.

Loki was the child of the giants Farbauti and Laufey. Yeah, Loki's heritage comes from Jotunheim, which isn't the best thing when you take up residence on Asgard. (FYI giants and gods do NOT mix.)

When Loki took up permanent residence in Asgard I can't really say. I believe that it is sometime after the death of Loki's first wife, Angrboda. Angrboda was a giantess herself, which to me, indicates that Loki had hung around Jotunheim for quite a bit. But why I don't think that Loki stuck exclusively to Jotunheim is the fact that Angrboda was killed by a group of gods (of whom I believe Balder and Frey were within.) Due to a group of gods directly going to her home and killing her children, it leads me to believe that the gods on Asgard wanted to make Loki pay for some tricks he had caused.

Unfortunately for her and Loki, and fortunately for the gods of Asgard, the raid on Angrboda's home is successful and leaves the gods to deal with three... ah, I'll say children. Well, they weren't really "children." Loki had three children by Angrboda. Fenrir the wolf, Jormungandr the Midgard serpent, and Hel the Queen of the Underworld.

Jormungandr is dumped on Migard (Earth) so the gods don't have to deal with him. Hel is dumped in the Underworld and becomes one of the most feared goddesses there is, and for good reason. Fenrir is taken to Asgard and causes a little problem for Tyr, but he gets over it.

What about Loki?

Well, I don't really know. Considering that there is nothing left in Jotunheim for him, I am led to believe that Loki would then head to Asgard. He eventually meets his second wife, Sigyn, and she gives him two more sons, Vali and Narvi. They become more important later on.

On Asgard Loki is an important adviser to Odin, which is a rather big deal when one thinks about it. I mean, Loki is basically the right hand man to the All-Father himself! Some say that Loki and Odin were even blood brothers. And Odin knows that Loki is a sneaky guy, not to mention that Loki is going to cause...

Well, Loki's not exactly the greatest guy to keep around. But Odin never really lets that on.

Instead, the All-Father lets Loki do his dirty work and then get the life beat out of him for it.

So, let's talk examples. The first that comes to my mind is the building of the wall of Asgard. Basically, there was a mason that came to Asgard and offered to build a wall around Asgard to help prevent invasion and attacks from giants and other baddies intent on taking over the realm. The mason's price is only to take the hand of the beautiful goddess of love herself, Freya. So, Loki convinces Odin to let this guy build the wall, on a very tight time limit. Because, Loki figures, there is no way this guy can do it, so Freya will be fine and part of a wall is built.

Sounds like a good deal, right?

Yeeeeaaaah... no. No, not at all. The guys actually is able to build this wall up way faster than anyone else thought. So, all the gods are freaking out and threaten Loki (namely Frey, who has had a rather long hatred with Loki, most of it involving his sister.) In order to say himself, Loki spies on the mason, and realizes that the horse that mason has with him is the one who can lift and help build the walls.

Then Loki changes into a mare (amongst many of his abilities, Loki is a shapeshifter)  and lets the mason's stallion see him. They run off together, for long enough that the mason is unable to finish the wall in time (to which then leads to a whole other issue, but Loki!) And Loki comes back, soon enough, with a little foal in tow... that has eight legs. Whose name is Sleipnir. To whom Loki gives to Odin as a steed... let me just remind you all that Loki was the mare.

But, that's Loki trying to help Asgard, and while I have great love for the god, he is a pretty sly guy. Like when he cut Sif's golden hair as a prank, to which he then had to go to the dwarves to get her new hair (and some other gifts because he was trying to let himself have a little slice of the pie) and the dwarves end up sewing his lips shut.

Loki also had a large/ the whole part to play when Idunn, the youth goddess, was stolen by the giant Thiazzi. Loki did eventually bring her back when the gods threatened him.

There is also the time that Thor got his hammer, Mjolnir, stolen by giants, and it was Loki who came up with the idea to get it back. That plan involved cross-dressing and false marriage.

Even though nearly every story in Norse mythology involves Loki, one of the biggest is the events that lead up to Ragnarok. Ragnarok is called the Twilight of the Gods (which basically means the end of the world), and one of Loki's titles is the Harbinger of Ragnarok.

This is started by Loki causing the death of Balder, the most beautiful of the Norse gods, who he has his blind brother Hodr, killed with a mistletoe spear. This then leads to Loki not crying over the death of Balder (which was the only way that Balder could be brought back to life). That spitballs into this big feast where Loki insults nearly all the gods present (and all the gods were present.) Loki then runs away after this, leading Thor, amongst other gods, to track him down and conduct his punishment.

Loki's punishment is definitely one of the stories that is most famous about him. As it goes, Loki is captured by the gods, to make him pay for what he did to Balder, and take him to a dark cave deep in the Earth. Remember how I said that Loki's sons by Sigyn would come up later?

Well, it's later. The gods change Vali into a wolf, and Vali immediately turns on his brother Narvi and kills him. The gods then slay Vali, take the intestines from Narvi, and bind Loki to three boulders with the entrails of his son. The entrails are then changed to unbreakable iron.

The position that Loki is in is enough to cause him immense pain, not to mention the grief at seeing two of his sons being murdered before his eyes, but neither is enough for the gods. To further his punishment, Skadi the icy goddess, places a venomous snake embedded in the rock above him. The snake then proceeds to drip copious amounts of burning acidic venom onto Loki.

Loki's response is to thrash around violently, screaming out in incredibly immense agony. As it goes, this is an explanation for earthquakes by the Norsemen. Kinda shows how much pain he's in if he's able to make the Earth physically shake from him moving around.

But the pain isn't constant. No, his loyal wife Sigyn is allowed to provide him a reprieve. She is given a shallow bowl to hold over him, to catch some of the venom. The problem is that the bowl fills rather quickly, and she has to dump the venom out. It's at these moments when the venom touches Loki that the thrashing starts, and so do the earthquakes.

So, when Loki is able to finally escape (by Fenrir ripping through the world, because Ragnarok was starting) and his bonds break. Loki then/will proceed to collect an army, many of which are from Surtur- the fire demon's- realm of Muspelheim and giants from Jotunheim. Loki leads them into Asgard, and the fight of the universe plays out, in which everyone (including Loki) die.

It's not like the god chose this. This was the fate that Loki was deemed by the Norns. No matter what he wanted or did, this was going to happen. And yeah, even though Loki was the trickster god and got Asgard into a lot of bad situations, he also got them out of a lot. The real question is whether you want to blame Loki for what happened, or if you want to blame fate. Because not even a god is able to change their fate.