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Loki
Prof. Enrique Palacios Q.1
Departamento de Histria
Universidade Bolivariana do Chile
[email protected]

Resumen
El artculo lleva con un anlisis general en los mitos que implican el personage de Loki y su
relacin con cosmologa y las cosmogonas escandinavas.
Palabras-claves: mitologia nrdica; Loki; Escandinvia.
Abstract
This article carries through a general analysis on myths involving the Loki personage and its
relation to cosmology and the Scandinavian cosmogony.
Keywords: Norse mythology; Loki; Scandinavia.

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Little more than a thousand years had elapsed since the Christ saw the light of
his first day. At that time, the monasteries were chanting songs and praises to his
majestic, imposing, fearsome and beneficial coming. A thousand years after which, the
prophecy and its turmoil were accomplished. Far away, a little beyond the glass, the
small figures that worked the land emerged transparent, distant from the monastic
silence, from voluntary retirement, from the crystalline bubble that separated those men
from the world, a bubble certainly built on rock foundations, on rock walls, of wrought
and immortal stone.
The figures move slowly, tired but satisfied, the sun begins to rise and it lifts a
scent of humid and cold earth. Do the Thousand years matter there? Why would they
matter in a place where there are not calendars, in a place where the time is as variable
as a lit candle, as a hurried or complacent prayer? Do the years matter there, in a place
where the crop is born green and solemn?, where the grain becomes bread?, where time
begins time and again in spring?
A little farther it does not matter either, a little farther from everything, it does
not make sense. There, every now and then, the Roman troops tried to enter and in some
occasions they left victorious and in so many others, they were humiliated, neither by
armies, nor by generals or by fierce and arrogant commandants, but rather by wild
barbarians that screamed amid the trees, barbarians that as soon as they fell pierced by
arrows, got up and came back in even larger numbers. Did they maybe multiply? Did
they maybe emerge by art of enchantments?, or were they so strong that as soon as they
disappeared, they were here, there, delivering blows, slashing, piercing with lances and
rustic swords?, with lances made of ash-tree wood or of oak wood?, of sacred woods?
Indeed, as they undoubtedly loved trees. And why not?, when the universe itself was a
living tree: Yggdrassil, on which the whole existence hung under its imposing branches,
why not? when its leaves covered the time, the space, the transcendence and the
banality?, why not? when its roots sheltered the gods and the humans under the same
roof?, a green, throbbing, cold and encircling roof that established a nexus among all
things alive.
Once, Tacit, that incredible man, had called Germania all those Nordic, humid
and mysterious lands, as dark and impenetrable as the forests that wrapped it, but
Germania was already in the past, conquered, civilized and integrated to the great Orb.
Centuries later, a small bastion would survive and we, with that same foundational
desire, would call Iceland that island where the fire cohabited with the ice. There, in the
year one thousand, the Christianity had not yet arrived. Others would call it
Hyperborean, and the inhabitants of those lands would see it as the sacred Thule where
all the gathered knowledge welcomed the gods in peace, to all of them, without
exclusion.
There, everything smelled of divinity, and from that place, the government of
the gods was lapsing in the unalterable and suspended time. There the constant was the
"Eternal Return" of Eliade, the floating time of Bloch. There, the future was annulled
portentously, but not in the intellectual agustinian systematization - sincere, we could
not doubt it - that since the IV and V centuries, cooed with its clarifying word the mind
of the monks, those that centuries later would not refrain from copying and illuminating
their works, with human precision, with transcription errors and interpretation errors in
each one of those unique and alive texts, for we should not forget either that through the
scriptorium, the ink slowly consumed the copyist's life, and it captured it in his work.
No, there the time had a different value and a different sense. Europe did not still
know that was living the Middle Ages.

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But, let us go on. Let us continue amid those rainy forests and let us leave
behind the villages and hamlets where one lives happily and with indefatigable work
spirit, for every day is a constant fight for survival in the face of a hostile environment.
Besides, a new danger loomed over those regions and it caused an unsuspected fear: one
after another, the incursions of the Vikings devastated those lands. It is true that, since
the IX century, the Scandinavian towns and mainly the Normans, carried out their
forays through Northern Europe, and that many times they reached the most southern
regions in a constant expansive process that would last until the beginnings of the XII
century, their presence nonetheless was always devastating.
The times in which Charles The Great had brought a certain cohesion and
tranquility to great part of Europe were in the past, that golden time in which the
Emperor Augusto had brought the Francs to touch the pleats of the Roman greatness,
formerly as terrible and Germanic as the people that inhabited Scandinavia. The Vikings
that slowly went spreading through Europe: the Normans (Also called Danish by the
Francs), the Jutos, and why not mentioning it, the Anglos and Saxons themselves, those
Germanic tribes coming from Denmark that had invaded Great Britain around the V and
VI centuries.
They were dangerous but useful peoples, not only because of the commercial
expansion carried out by the Swedes through the Russian steppes, penetrating in the
continent through the Volga and Dniper and opening new commercial routes toward
oriental lands. In those days, the Roman Emperor of the East, had in Constantinople a
personal guard of Viking warriors: the Varegian guard. In a similar fashion to what, to
the West, meant the praetorians, Hrulos, and its king Odoacro.
In occident the situation was undoubtedly not so promising. Some time had
already passed since, by force of attacks and plundering of important cities such as
Hamburg, Run, Bordeaux and Paris herself, the Francs had accepted to cohabit with
the Normans, signing a treaty with them in the year 911. But the belligerent fury of
these peoples did not cease with their establishment in Normandy, their impulse went
far beyond, following the flaming footprint left behind by the king Canute II the Great
during the XI century, upon the founding of his Scandinavian empire in Northern
Europe, subjugating under his might Denmark, Sweden and England herself, the
conquests continued. Years later, the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror,
would snatch England definitively from Anglos and Saxons in the year 1066, after his
victory in the battle of Hastings, ending the Anglo-Saxon primacy in the great island.
Amid the wars, the expansion and the conquest, Medieval Europe was slowly
being defined, and between the battles and the weakness of the kings, the feudal system
was progressively being secured. An indelible trail of fire left behind by these warriors.
Let us continue our trip, beyond where the men lived, where the ice and the
greenery mingled under the clouds and a rough sea. There, where the gods dwelled and
History was just another one amid divinities: Saga, Odins partner, sang to the victories
and to the defeats, both so necessary. The victories because they secured the terrestrial
domination, the defeats, so important, because they nurtured God with faithful and
valiant warriors.
In those days, Saga was being covered with myths, because behind the curtain of
trees, time was not captured by the dates, and why to do so?, if the facts worthy of
memory were always remembered, if the simple and banal facts were so soon forgotten.
Everything had begun so long ago and nevertheless, the gods were still roaming the
earth, running, riding, throwing thunders and making the fields flourish. The mysterious
creatures still populated the swamps and the paths, they dwelled in the houses of men
and they slept under their roof.

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Still in the silence, it was remembered that long ago, when nothing yet existed
nor had its own essence, only two worlds existed. To the north, Niflheim, region of ice,
to the south, Muspelheim, region of fire. There, giant Sutr inhabited, armed with a shiny
sword. A great abyss, Ginungagap, separated both worlds.
Let us remember the words of Vala, in the Elder Edda2, because nobody better
than her can tell us about the origin of everything. In this place far from everything, her
voice turns into an epic song, a perfect mixture of anger and divinity, of deep love for
all the existing things:
"From the breast of countless winters
before the earth was made
Bergelmer was born:
Thrudgelmer was his father,
His grandfather Aurgelmer
From Elivagars breast
sprang venom drops,
which grew till they became a giant;
but sparks flew
from the south-world:
to the ice the fire gave life.
They said that under Rhimthurs arm
A girl and a boy grew together;
Foot with foot begot
of the wise giant,
a six headed son (Niedner 1997: 11)

The icy great ocean extended through unknown regions, above Ginungagap, the
sparks fought against the cold vapors of ice, and from this primitive battle among the
elements, Ymir was born, named by the giants as Aurgelmer, the quintessential giant.
From the sweat of his arms, two children, female and male were born. From the sweat
of his feet, the rest of the giants were born.
Ymir fed of the milk of the Audhumbla cow, from her, the liquid flowed through
four springs from which the giant picked up his food. Audhumbla fed in turn of ice. One
day, while the cow licked the frost, a head of hair appeared among the ice, the second
day a frozen head arose, the cow continued licking the icy bark and she wasted no time
in discovering the figure of a god: Bure, the father of the gods. The god, soon came
back to life and he engendered his son Bor, who in turn, surrendered in marriage to
Bestla, the daughter of giant Bolthorn: of that union three gods were born: Odin, Vili
and Ve: the spirit, the will and the sacred. In those days, a bloody fight was sustained by
the gods against the giants of the ices.
Odin, Vili and Ve, gave death to giant Ymir, and they deposited his cadaver in
the abyss: thence the birth of the mainland, of his decomposed body, all the existent
things took shape. Midgard, the earth, would begin to be inhabited. From the very
beginning of the creation, until the moment of the final destruction, the existence is a
constant fight, a cosmic battle with a predictable and unequivocal end: the destruction
by which, everything is renovated and restarted, a destruction by which everything
returns to their primitive and prodigious state.
The Nordic mythology is a great tragic adventure of destruction and redemption,
it is an unstoppable current of fall in which gods, giants and humans are carried toward

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its inevitable end. An instinctive reunion with death and rebirth, a cosmic eternal
rearrangement that destroys and engenders in a constant chain. However, we should not
believe that this is a system that does not await for hope, not at all, that is unthinkable.
In the creational and destructive synthesis, the lineal sense gets lost. What is it first?, the
beginning or the end? Did not Bure lie panting in the ice?, was not that god a seed?, a
seed the same as Balder, the god that will be reborn after the twilight?
A multitude of gods and beings are included in this system, each one taking his
place in the cosmic dynamics that Ygdrassil, the universal tree suggests. However, two
powers emerge facing each other and in need of each other. Odin the father of the gods,
and Loki, the destructive fire. Many times, due to the importance of their fight, we
forget their mutual necessity, many times in search of the life, we forget the necessity of
the continuous and incessant death.
Loki is the burning Fire that travels indefatigable the paths, he who illuminates
the solitude and drives away the shades after giving them the precious life. A road built
between the light and the gloom, in the Being's darkness, in his deep intimacy, in the
darkness of the meat and of the breathing, such is its essence.
Indefatigable, unalterable spirit, a developing and overpowering force that
contains the mystery of all mysteries. That that penetrates, that can see, that smells of
melancholy and distant horizons. Able to arise in any instant, in any place.
Tremendously seductive, tremendously destructive. His body, intangible, small and
fragile, hides his true power: the gift of the word, of the deceiving word that wraps us to
each instant. He laughs continually, he laughs with his terrifying, contagious, magic,
enchanting and fearsome smile. Divine spirit in freedom, there lies its power, that that
the goddesses do not disdain when joyfully they lie in his bed. Because they can hardly
resist him.
Son of Farbauti, (the inventor of fire) and of Laufey (the forest Island), he gets
involved in a constant game of loyalty and of enmity with the other gods. Practically
equal in importance to Odin, Loki frequently reminds him that he has not sworn him
loyalty, but only "fraternity", and in fact, partner of adventures and misfortunes of Odn,
many times he has drunk of the same glass that the divine sovereign, in a certain way,
they are siblings and comrades, in fact, the siblings of Loki are Byleist (The destructive
fire) and Helblinde (The fire that lights the spirit) who is none other than Odin. Elder
Edda points out us an exchange of words between both gods after a banquet, there Loki
uses its best weapon: the word that hides a meaning, the sentence that says a lot without
saying enough, the word that can tie and chain:
"Do you remember Odin that in the dawn of times we mixed
our blood?
Then you assured you would never drink a drink
If they didn't offer it to us both." (Niedner 1997: 200)

Blood unites and makes comparable the brotherhood from birth. It is the sacred
and inviolable pact that generates obligations and loyalties, but for him, for whom
morals do not exist, this can only bring him benefits, a situation privileged above the
other gods. The luck accompanies him, he is always on the prowl, in the place and in
the precise instant to deal the definitive blow and to disappear in the profitable instant.
However, the necessity is reciprocal, Odin knows that he needs him, and continually he
uses his amorality, that capacity he has to break the pacts without remorse, the freedom
that grants the dishonor.
There resides his attractiveness, in spite of being a wicked entity, Loki is a
tremendously captivating figure. His life is a constant mockery, he ridicules, he curses,

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he plays jokes, and he emerges always victorious, but his essence is before anything the
wickedness: he has given life to the most monstrous beings, to the wolf Fenrir that that
will give death to Odn in the last battle and who devours the hand of Tyuz, the god of
the war and the honor, and to the Snake that continually gnaws the roots of Ygdrassil,
with the hidden hope of knocking down the cosmos, and to Hela, his daughter, the pale
goddess of death. But he has also engendered Sleipnir, the horse of Odn. His dual
character however, it is marked by a form of behaving very well defined, since he also
is the teacher of the ambiguity. Pierre Grimal explains wisely to us that:
"Loki, as opposed to the gods, does not fear the great catastrophe foreseen
by the prophets; on the contrary, the flame with his desires will triumph
the day when the underneath powers will get unchained, the destructive
demons; all the proud buildings of the gods will come undone, he will
triumph that day in an explosion of demoniac laugh." (Grimal 1973, Vol
II)

Not agreement exists about the meaning of his name that could well derive from
Icelandic Luka (End), or of the term Logi (Fire), although it presents two variants,
Utgard Loke that is the physical disease and Handle-Loke, the wicked essence, but
whatever the case may be, all of them correspond to the symbolic meaning relative to
the destruction caused by fire, either corporeal or spiritual.
In Loki lies the potential, latent destruction that awaits the precise moment to
spread freely. His desire to take the ruin to the divine Kingdom, by means of the
destruction that will carry his death - because the mythological Nordic system is so
particular that it tells us about the fate of the gods - it shows us up the point to which its
spirit is treacherous and disloyal. In the Twilight of the Gods, Loki will die, and
nevertheless he wants that destruction, there resides his essence for in it lies his
realization.
Often he faces the gods, and the stories have us used to this ambiguous
character. Loki helps the gods whenever it is convenient for him, he betrays them when
the opportunity presents itself. This fact, shows us the volatile character of fire, warm,
cozy, element that provides security and light but which suddenly can turn into
destruction and danger. The gods know about this inconsistency, but they do not reject
him, it is so necessary sometimes to emerge triumphant of the unachievable pacts that
many times they commit themselves, and that because of honor, they cannot undo but
by means of deceit. Every time, Loki is there to help them out.
Often, he contrives pacts with the Giants, the eternal enemies of the divine race,
many times he lends them a helping hand to the detriment of the divine interests,
perhaps because his ambiguous essence and the wisdom that from it emanates, makes
him realize that in spite of any thing, the end of all and everything is already written and
nothing can change it. The Nornas plot, knit and blind the destiny, Odin has not even
the power to contradict them.
However, Loki has a fatal enemy and it will be against him to whom he will
direct his sword the last day in the final battle. To the darkness, to the shade that
projects the fire and that eternally will accompany him, it opposes the light, the pure and
total, radiant and celestial light: Heimdall (Hviti ss, "the innocent" god), the watcher of
the gods who dwells in his radiant fortress in the end of Bifrost ("the road that
trembles"), the rainbow that connects the world of the gods with the world of the
humans:
"(...)the race of Bergelmer has multiplied and the giants have with whom
to understand each other in the court of Odin. The god Loki plots with

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them the ruin of the Aces. It is necessary that Heimdall,the most vigilant
of the gods, be always awake mounted in the Rainbow with a trumpet In
his hand, ready to call the Aces to the combat. He sleeps less than a bird
and he can see the grass growing under his feet in the valleys." (Reinach
1944: 207)

Heimdall is Odins son, born of nine virgin sisters, he is a very powerful and
respected god since, in a way, the destiny of the gods resides in his vigilant eye that
should be attentive in case the Giants try to climb Bifrost and arrive in Asgard. His horn
of battle, Gjallar-horn can be listened in the whole cosmos, nevertheless, it must sound
only in one occasion, when the decline is irremediable, when the destruction wraps the
world. Elder Edda, in the singing of Grimner tells us that:
"It is in himminbjorg
That Heimdall, it is said, inhabits and governs.
There the guardan of the gods drinks happily the good mead
In the old and gentle rooms." (Niedner 1997: 200)

The fight between both gods is the expression of the battle between the light and
the darkness, and in the last of the days the Pure God will be able to give the blow of
death to their declared enemy, but the victory will be momentary, because he will also
succumb due to the received wounds, and this is because darkness does not exist
without the light and vice versa, besides, is the unavoidable destiny that wraps with its
halo the divine beings. But meanwhile, nothing frightens the restless spirit of Loki,
neither the diligence nor the might of Heimdall are able to discourage him.
Adopting different forms, inclusive many times that of a woman, he is able to
deceive the more meticulous surveillance, because he is also vigilant: on a mountain, he
has a tower that serves him as observatory and from where he observes secretly the gods
and the men, from there, he can learn all the weaknesses and the actions of his victims,
because once he is aware of some weakness, he does not hesitate to use it to his
advantage with the purpose of having a good time and winning something in return.
The bad actions in that he incurs are countless, and in each one of them it
overflows his cunning, his malignancy and his special sense of humor, what makes him
human and especially interesting.
Perhaps one of the most remembered episodes is the one in which, without any
good reason, he cut the hair of the beautiful Sif, the wife of mighty Thor, although in
that occasion it did not go very well, because the anger of Thor almost cost him his life,
and he only saved it in exchange for promising a compensation: to forge a head of
golden hair for Sif that would grow in a natural way. Obviously, and by force of
persuasion, were the dwarves who ended up doing it, and at the same time, they built
Skidbladnir, the ship of Odin and the lance of Gungnir. Both gifts that reconciled him
with the Master of the Gods.
In spite of their differences, is not Heimdall who worries Loki the most, because
in his soul he keeps a deep hate for Balder, who is destined to govern the world after the
divine decline. In fact Loki was responsible for his death.
One day Balder comments to the other gods that he has had a terrible dream that
vaticinated his death, they wonder horrified what they will do about it, for they love
Balder. Odin listens in silence, because he knows that the greatness of the Aces goes
hand in hand with the life of the gods. Then Frigga, the wife of Odin, finds the solution:
they must exact from all things, alive and inanimate, an oath that none of them would
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cause any damage to good Balder. The idea is accepted and Frigga travels the worlds
taking the solemn promise: nothing will harm the god.
Intrigued, Loki wins the trust of Frigga and he asks her if truly all the things
have promised not to damage Balder, and the goddess admits that only the mistletoe did
not take the oath, because it seemed too feeble to cause him any damage. Immediately
Loki begins to plot his plan.
Moments later, everybody gets together and amused themselves with using
Balder as a target, because no matter how much they hurl darts at him or stroke him
with their swords, nothing will harm him. Only Heder, the blind god remains in a
corner far from the crowd. Loki comes closer and asks him why he does not participate
of the game, to what Heder responds that he does not because he is blind and he does
not have any weapons. Loki gives him an arrow and volunteers to aim, Heder, blind as
destiny, hurls the arrow and Balder falls down lifeless. A great silence travels through
the room: the arrow is carved in a mistletoe twig, the gods shiver of fear and then of
anger, but nothing can be done because Heder is not to blame. Once again Loki
disappears.
When the calm is restored, the solution emerges. They must ask Hela to bring
back Balder, because since the god did not die in combat, his soul did not go to
Valhalla, but rather to the kingdom of the dead. Hermod, one of the children of Odin,
god of the courage and messenger of the gods, travels to Hell and meets with Hela and
the goddess consents to return Balder if all things cry for his death. Everything weeps
for Balder, the stones and the roses, the immobile air and the light, everything, except
for a giantess named Thok. The gods ask her to weep for Balder the Good one, and she
responds coldly:
"Thok will wail
With dry tears
For the death of Balder
Neither in life nor in the death he has given me happiness.
Let Hela keep her own." (Niedner 1997: 105.7, 121)

We have more than enough reasons to be sure that that giantess was none other
than Loki himself. The gods suspected it but they could do nothing, the damage had
already been done. All it could be done was to prepare for the great battle in that
everything would finish: fearsome Ragnarok. The day that not even Odin himself knew
with certainty.
For a while Loki did not turn up again, but the peace did not last long, because
he reappeared, once the commotion had vanished. On a certain occasion, the gods
celebrated a banquet in the fortress of Aeger, the Master of the Sea, and they were all
invited except Loki. As expected, it did not take long for him to arrive requesting
hospitality and food, something that the sacred laws forced to grant to anyone who
requested it. Edda reminds us the persuasive words of Loki:
"Having been thirsty
I have come to this palace
I have taken a long trip to request the gods
If they would allow me to have a sip of the valuable mead.
Why are you so silent, gods?
Why are you so obstinate?
Have you lost the speech?
Give me a seat and a place in the banquet
Or throw me out." (Niedner 1997: 224)

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The gods consented to receive him since nothing could be done. It was only a
matter of time: once Loki sat down he began to speak badly of everyone. Nobody can
respond, what he says is true, Gefione the Virgin goddess has gone to bed with more
than only one, he has done it himself with the goddesses that attend the banquet. The
moment becomes tense and beautiful Sif asks him to calm down and she offers him the
divine drink, then Loki begins to say that she has also shared a bed with him and that
she has given him her body. At that moment Thor appears, with the fury of the thunder,
to defend the honor of his wife of the cruel slander. He tries to kill him, his anger is
such that he does not respect the sacredness of the place, the other gods keep silent,
because Loki deserves it without a doubt, but the God of the Fire cunningly is able to
slip out his hands.
Then he takes refuge in the mountains and erects a fortress from which he can
observe all surroundings, during the day, he turns into a salmon and hides in the water.
However, nobody surpasses Odin in wisdom and power, and the father of the gods soon
discovers his hideaway. Then they begin to prepare the expedition. In a moment of
negligence, Loki knits a net to amuse himself, and he has fun in throwing it, then the
gods arrive and Loki runs away, not before dropping the net in the fire, he turns into a
salmon and by diving into the water he saves his life, but the gods have picked up the
net from the fire and they realize it would be useful for capturing a fish. Immediately,
the gods knitted a net and placed it in the course of the river.
Time and again Loki is able to avoid the net, in spite of the cunning of the gods
that placed it time and again in the river in different places. Thor began to walk behind
the net and the other gods advanced combing the water with it. Loki tried to leap over it
and was captured by Thor. This way, Loki was made prisoner with his own trap, as the
last of all his ironies. He was taken to a cavern and there he was tied with strings made
with the bowels of his children. Later on, a snake was put on his face, so that the poison
that flowed from its jaws would burn his face until the end of the days, when the chains
are broken and Loki takes his place in the last of the battles, to kill and to lose his life,
as everyone else, so that the world can be born again.
Nobody knows how long will it take for that moment to arrive, nobody, and
although Odin sometimes rides hastily on the clouds with his ghastly army, and Thor
delights himself in allowing the lightning and the thunder to strike the fields, that
moment has not yet arrived. Loki still feels pain convulsions in the depths of the earth,
and he trembles, making the surface to shake, he still remains chained, and wisdom is
prisoner of the Kingdom of the death.
Perhaps, that last battle will never be carried out, we could not know it, we are a
thousand years apart of that year one thousand, and things have changed significantly:
the monks fell asleep waiting for the Christ, now they keep silence, and their
scriptorium no longer provide books to life. Now, all it is left is to travel a little further
on and to find the whisper of hidden divinity in the last corners, they still contain
enough magic.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GRIMAL, Pierre. Mythologies. Translation by Jos Mara Valverde. Barcelona:
Editorial Planeta, 1973.
NIEDNER, Heinrich; Nordic Mythology. Translation of Gloria Peradejordi. Barcelona:
Edicomunicacines, 1997.

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REINACH, Salomn. Orfeo: General history of the religions.Mexico: New Editorial

Spain, 1944.

NOTES
1

The author is Licensed in History and Magister in European History by the University of Chile, and, at
the moment he dictates the subject of Medieval and Modern History in the Bolivariana University of
Chile. The author sincerely thanks for to Mr. Fernando Wladdimiro by his aid in the correction and
translation of the present text.

The Eddas are two important collections of Icelandic medieval mythological poems. The old Edda, also
called Elder or Poetic Edda was written between the IX and XII centuries, and it was gathered by
Saemund the Sage, it consists of 30 poems or songs where an account is given of the Nordic cosmogony.
New Edda, also called Younger or Prose Edda was written by Snorri Sturluson in the XIII century,
collecting a series of mythological Scandinavian stories.

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