The writer would like to dedicate an entire article to specifically introduce Loki – the god who is probably the most interesting and anecdotal god in Norse Mythology.

Story: 

Loki is the God of Deceit in Norse mythology. He is famous for his cunning and habit of teasing other gods, causing countless disasters and even reluctant victories.

Loki lives with the gods on Asgard, but he is not an official Aesir but is the son of a Jotun giant named Farbauti and a mother named Laufey (it is still unclear what race Loki’s mother is).

Because he is a child of Jotun but lives with the Aesir gods, Loki seems to be a lost and lonely person among the gods as well as his entire Jotun race. He usually doesn’t care about either side and sometimes he helps the gods, sometimes he supports the Jotuns. It doesn’t matter, because perhaps, for Loki, causing trouble and causing disasters is his only pleasure.

Freya’s Brisingamen.

Freya – goddess of love and beauty, leader of the Valkyries, is a person who loves gorgeous jewelry. One day, Freya passed by a cave and discovered that there were four dwarves in the cave who were crafting a beautiful necklace. She immediately fell in love with that piece of jewelry and begged the four dwarves to give her the bracelet, which she was willing to exchange for a lot of other gold and silver jewels.

All four dwarves refused to sell the bracelet back to Freya, but made an offer in exchange. Freya will own the bracelet if she agrees to have sex with all four of them. Because she was so fascinated with the bracelet, Freya agreed. But she did not know that Loki had followed her and knew this story. He hurriedly went to Odin to tell Freya’s crime.

Hearing Loki’s words, Odin was very angry and ordered Loki to take the necklace and bring it back to him. Loki sneaked into Freya’s house, taking advantage of her sleep to steal the bracelet. Freya woke up and saw that the bracelet was missing. She ran to cry and beg Odin, but Odin made a condition for Freya. She must cause a war between the two leaders of Midgard, a bloody war with many deaths, then she will receive her necklace back.

Later, after Freya kept her word, Odin had to send Heimdall to chase Loki and take back the bracelet because it seemed Loki had no intention of returning it to Freya. Well, just because of a whisper from Loki, many Midgard people died in war.

Sif’s hair

Sif is the wife of the mighty god Thor, but she cannot escape Loki’s cruel jokes. Goddess Sif has beautiful hair, long and golden like harvest fields. One day, while Sif was sleeping, Loki secretly cut her hair. This really made Thor angry. Fortunately for Loki, he asked dwarf artists to make a golden wig to pay for Sif.

Lady Idun and the apples

Idun is the goddess who guards the apples of youth. Once, Loki was kidnapped by a giant named Thiassi who threatened to kill Loki unless he brought the old lady Idun and her apples. But fearing the anger of the gods, Loki had to transform himself into a falcon to save Idun from Thiassi. Thiassi also transformed into an eagle to chase Loki until the Asgard gods used fire to kill Thiassi.

Thiassi’s daughter, Skadi, heard of her father’s death and went to Asgard to demand compensation. One of Skadi’s requests was that the gods make her laugh. And this “noble” task was pushed by the gods to Loki. Loki had to use a rope to tie one end to a goat ‘s beard and one end to his testicles. Both Loki and the goat tried to pull the rope and screamed in pain. This humorous scene made Skadi and the gods laugh.

It can be said that Loki redeemed himself and saved the gods from trouble with the giants. This can also be considered a “resounding victory” of Loki. Unfortunately, in the thinking of the Vikings at that time, Loki‘s victories that were not as glorious as this were never recognized.

The Asgard protective wall and the unexpected pregnancy

In the early days of Asgard’s founding, the gods wanted to build a wall to protect Asgard from enemies, but it was a difficult job that no god or mortal could accomplish. . A giant blacksmith came to Asgard and pledged to complete the wall in just 3 seasons, on the condition that the gods give him the beautiful goddess Freya along with the moon and sun.

Loki thought of an idea. He advised the gods to accept the giant’s exchange request, on the condition that he alone must complete the wall before winter comes, without anyone’s help except his horse, otherwise the deal would end . invalid. Loki believes that the giant cannot complete the project before winter. The gods agreed with Loki’s plan.

But unfortunately, contrary to what Loki and the gods thought, the giant could still work effectively without anyone’s help and with his progress it would definitely be completed before winter came. All thanks to the help of the horse Svadilfari. The horse was so strong that it could easily pull large blocks of stone up the city walls alone.

The gods were worried when they saw that the project was almost finished, and gathered together to force Loki to think of a way to prevent the giant from finishing on time. Reluctantly, Loki had no choice but to turn into a mare to lure the giant’s horse to follow him deep into the forest. Losing his horse, the giant could not complete the wall on schedule and was “rewarded” by the gods with a blow from Thor’s hammer. And Loki, in the form of a mare, was finally overtaken by the giant’s horse. The two horses mated and Loki became pregnant, giving birth to an 8-legged horse named Sleipnir.

After the incident, it suddenly appeared that the Asgard gods were not very fair-playing and were somewhat cruel when they killed the giant who built the wall for them. Perhaps, if the gods let the giant complete the wall, the enemy would not be able to storm Asgard and create the apocalypse of the gods later.

As for Loki, he actually saved the gods from defeat, but perhaps this silent victory was not very heroic and was somewhat wasted. (Poor Loki!)

Death of Balder

Balder – the most handsome, kind and beloved god in Asgard. Once, Balder dreamed that he would die. The goddess Frigg – Balder’s mother, traveled around the world to make all creatures swear that they would not harm her son. However, Frigg ignored mistletoe because he thought it was too harmless. Loki knew this, he created a spear from mistletoe wood and tempted Hoder – a blind god, the younger brother of the god Balder, to use the spear to stab his brother to death.

Hermod, another of Balder’s younger brothers, volunteered to go to Helheim hell, pleading with Hel – the goddess in charge of the underworld to spare Balder’s soul and pointing out that all living creatures on earth love Balder. Hel said that if all living things mourned Balder’s death, she would release Balder. However, there was a giant named Tokk who did not cry, so Balder had to stay in Helheim until the apocalypse Ragnarok happened. The giant Tokk was transformed by Loki.

Loki was also punished by the gods for Balder’s death. He was chained to three rocks in a cave and had a snake on his head that would drip venom onto Loki. One of Loki’s wives, Sygin, used a bowl to catch the snake’s venom from flowing onto her husband.