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Vol. 2
The Twisted Tales
In the tales, Loki is portrayed as a scheming coward who cares only for shallow pleasures and self-preservation. He�s by turns playful, malicious, and helpful, but he�s always irreverent and nihilistic.
For example, in The Kidnapping of Idun, Loki, by his recklessness, ends up in the hands of a furious giant, Thiazi, who threatens to kill Loki unless he brings him the goddess Idun. Loki complies in order to save his life, and then finds himself in the awkward position of having the gods threaten him with death unless he rescues Idun. He agrees to this request for the same base motive, shifting his shape into that of a falcon and carrying the goddess back to Asgard in his talons. Thiazi pursues him desperately in the form of an eagle, but, having almost caught up with Loki as he nears his destination, the gods light a fire around the perimeter of their fortress. The flames catch Thiazi and burn him to death, while Idun and Loki reach the halls of the gods safely. Loki ultimately comes to the aid of the gods, but only to rectify a calamity for which he himself is responsible. This theme is repeated in numerous tales, such as in Loki and the Dwarves and the aforementioned The Fortification of Asgard.
After Thiazi�s death, the giant�s daughter, Skadi, arrives in Asgard demanding restitution for the slaying of her father. One of her demands is that the gods make her laugh, something which only Loki is able to do. To accomplish this, he ties one end of a rope to the beard of a goat and the other end to his testicles. Both he and the goat squawk and squeal as one pulls one way and the other pulls the other way. Eventually he falls over in Skadi�s lap, and the giantess can�t help but laugh at such an absurd spectacle. Here, Loki once again comes to the aid of the gods, but simply by being silly and outlandish, not by accomplishing any feat that a Viking Age Scandinavian would have found to be particularly honorable.
Vol. 3
Man, Myth, God, or Giant
Loki alternately helps both the gods and the giants, depending on which course of action is most pleasurable and advantageous to him at the time. During Ragnarok, when the gods and giants engage in their ultimate struggle and the cosmos is destroyed and re-created, Loki joins the battle on the side of the giants. He and the god Heimdall mortally wound each other.
Loki is perhaps best known for his malevolent role in The Death of Baldur. After the death of the beloved god Baldur is prophesied, Baldur�s mother, Frigg, secures a promise from every living thing to not harm her son. Well, almost everything � no such oath is obtained from the mistletoe, which the gods think too small and safe a thing to harm Baldur. Upon discovering this omission, Loki carves a mistletoe spear, places it in the hands of the blind god Hod, and instructs him to throw it at Baldur. Hod, not knowing the origin of the weapon, complies, and Baldur is impaled and dies. The god Hermod rides Sleipnir to Helheim and implores Hel to release Baldur, pointing out how beloved he is by all living things. Hel retorts that if this is so, then it shouldn�t be difficult to compel every being in the world to weep for Baldur, and, should this happen, the dead god would be released from the grave. Every living thing does indeed cry for Baldur�s return, with one sole exception: a frost-hearted giantess named Tokk (��kk, �Thanks�), who is almost certainly Loki in disguise. So Baldur must remain in Hel until Ragnarok.
For these and many more crimes against them, the gods eventually forge a chain from the entrails of another seldom-mentioned son of Loki�s and tie him down to three rocks inside a cave. A venomous serpent sits above him, dripping poison onto him. Loki�s apparently very faithful and loving wife, Sigyn, sits at his side with a bowl to catch the venom. But when the bowl becomes full, of course, she has to leave her husband�s side to pour it out. When this happens, the drops of venom that fall onto him cause him to writhe in agony, and these convulsions create earthquakes. And in this state he lies until breaking free at Ragnarok.
A fascinating variant of the tale of Loki�s being bound comes to us from the medieval Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. In his History of the Danes, Thor, on one of his many journeys to Jotunheim, the homeland of the giants, finds a giant named �tgar�aloki (�Loki of the Utangard�). �tgar�aloki is bound in exactly the same manner as that in which Loki is bound in the tale mentioned above, which comes from Icelandic sources. It seems that even the heathen Scandinavians themselves held conflicting views on whether Loki was a god, a giant, or something else entirely.
Vol. 1
What Makes A God
While treated as a nominal member of the Aesir tribe of gods in the Eddas and sagas, Loki occupies a highly ambivalent and ultimately solitary position amongst the gods, giants, and the other classes of invisible beings that populate the traditional spirituality of the Norse and other Germanic peoples.
His familial relations attest to this. His father is the giant F�rbauti (�Cruel Striker�), and his mother, Laufey (possibly �Tree�), could be a goddess, a giantess, or something else entirely � the surviving sources are silent on this point. Loki is the father, by the giantess Angrbo�a (�Anguish-Boding�) of Hel, the goddess of the grave, Jormungand, the great serpent who slays Thor during Ragnarok, and Fenrir, the wolf who bites off one of the hands of Tyr and who kills Odin during Ragnarok � hardly a reputable brood, to say the least. As we�ll see below, Loki demonstrates a complete lack of concern for the well-being of his fellow gods, a trait which could be discerned, in vague outline, merely by considering his offspring.
Loki often runs afoul not only of societal expectations, but also of what we today might call �the laws of nature.� In addition to the progeny listed above, Loki is also the mother � yes, the mother � of Sleipnir, Odin�s shamanic horse, whom Loki gave birth to after shapeshifting into a mare and courting the stallion Sva�ilfari, as is recounted in the tale of The Fortification of Asgard.
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A Would-Be King
A Birthright Stolen
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In Marvel Traditions and Verses, Loki is one of several powerful beings from the magical realm of Asgard, who have been worshipped as gods. Odin, once the ruler of the Asgardian gods, led his subjects in a war against their enemy, the frost giants from the land of Jotunheim (one of the nine worlds of Asgard). Laufey, king of the frost giants, was slain in battle and the giants were defeated. Surveying the spoils of war, the Asgardians discovered a small Asgardian god-sized baby hidden at the giants′ main fortress. The infant was Loki, whom Laufey had kept hidden due to his shame over his son′s diminutive size. Odin remembered his father Bor�s dying words to adopt the son of a father killed by his hands; Odin adopted Loki into his own family, raising Loki like a son along with his biological son, Thor.
In childhood Loki greatly resented the fact that Odin and the other Asgardians favored the young Thor, who already had a nobility of spirit and excelled in all his endeavors. As a boy Loki began studying the arts of sorcery, for which he had a natural affinity. He became infamous for his mischievousness, but secretly resented Thor and the love that Odin lavished upon him. When Odin was preparing his greatest gift for Thor, the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, Loki interfered with its creation, causing its handle to be forged too short. Loki was envious that Thor would one day wield Mjolnir, and over the years repeatedly crafted schemes to make Mjolnir�s power his own.
Loki made several attempts at claiming the throne of Asgard when Odin entered into his �Odinsleep� hibernation (a time when Odin lay vulnerable while recharging his energy), but outside threats to Asgard such as the vengeful creature of pure hatred, Mangog and the fire demon Surtur frightened Loki into surrendering the throne to its rightful ruler. Loki continued his mischief on Earth. He once joined forces with wicked entity Dormammu of the Dark Dimension to trick the Avengers and another team of super-heroes, the Defenders, into assembling the mystical Evil Eye for them, but the combined heroes ultimately defeated them both. Loki even unleashed a direct assault upon Earth once, but Thor helped lead Earth�s ground forces against his half-brother�s army and defeated him. After Loki usurped the throne of Asgard yet again, he was punished by Odin and banished to Earth in the form of a vagrant.
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Madeleine
The Mother of Greatness
Blackwood-Vesta
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