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Loki
(Loki Laufeyjarson)
Loki is often thought of as the most negative of the Gods. He became a God when hefraternized with Odinn, but as we know Loki was a Jotunn. His father was the JotunnFarbauti and his mother was Laufey (sometimes called Nal), he had two brothers, Byleisturand Helblindi. Loki is the father of Midgardsormur, Fenrisulfur and Hel, the foes of theGods. Their mother was the female Troll, Angurboda. Loki's "wife" was Sigyn. Theyhave two sons, Nari (or Narfi) and Vali. Loki was very good looking but he had a badtemper, was wicked, cunning and deceitful.
Loki is also called "vinur Hrafnasar" (the friend of the God of Ravens, Odinn), the friendof Hænir and "Thors runi" (friend of Thor). This does not seem to fit with the Loki weknow, for he is so often the Gods' enemy. Loki has also got some names, like e.g. "VammGoda" (the disgrace of Gods), that show how evil he was.
In the beginning Loki was a friend of the Gods and often accompanied them, especiallyOdinn and Thor, though his rashness and thoughtlessness often gets them into troubles. Later on his friendship with the Gods became more and more unstable and at the end hehad becomn the Gods' worst opponent, and was even thought of as a devil. This might besomekind of an influence from christianity.
Sometimes Loki helps the Gods. This was especially when he had gotten them intotrouble, and the Gods threatened him. There were times when Loki helped them eventhough he wasn't to blame, like the time when Thor's hammer Mjolnir had been stolen andLoki helped him get it back. There are some stories known about how Loki betrayedthe Gods and then helped them to get things back to normal. At first he only betrayedthem because he was made to do so by the Jotunns, but later on he started doing so byhimself. The most famous of these stories is maybe the story of how Loki gave Idunn tothe Jotunn Thjassi, and then got her back with help from the Gods.
The worst thing that Loki ever did was when he got Baldur killed. Baldur's death was saidto be the Gods greatest misfortune of all. Because of that Loki was punished, as said in thestory Gylfaginning.
The last story about Loki is Gylfaginning, the story of how Loki was punished. Loki hadchanged himself into a salmon, and hidden himself from the Gods in Franangursfossi (theFranangurs waterfall). The Gods found him and captured him into a net that Loki haddesigned himself. They brought him to a cave were they tied him to rocks.and put apoisoned worm above him. This worm gives out poison, which drips into Loki's face. Sygin, Loki's "wife" holds a bowl to keep the poison away from him. Sometimes Syginhas to empty the bowl, then the poison drips onto Loki's face. When this happens theearth shivers, this we know as earthqakes.
At Ragnarok Loki gets free and fights against the Gods, becomes the opponents' leader. Loki fights Heimdallur and they both die.
Loki was never worshiped as the other Gods.
 Lokis Dottir · Sun Mar 18, 2007 @ 05:09am · 0 Comments |
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