Loki
Loki is one of the most complex and ambiguous figures in Norse mythology: a jötunn (giant) by birth who lives among the Aesir gods as their companion and, at times, adversary. He is central to the myth of Baldr's death and is fated to fight against the gods at Ragnarök.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-21
Historical fact
Loki is documented in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda as the son of the giants Fárbauti and Laufey, making him a jötunn by lineage, though he lives among the Aesir in Asgard. With the giantess Angrboða, he fathers three feared beings: the wolf Fenrir, the world serpent Jörmungandr, and Hel, ruler of the realm of the dead. According to Gylfaginning, Loki engineers the death of the god Baldr, tricking the blind god Höðr into killing him with a mistletoe dart, and afterward prevents Baldr's return from the realm of the dead by refusing to weep for him, disguised as the giantess Þökk. As punishment, he is bound with the entrails of one of his sons while a serpent drips venom onto his face until Ragnarök — an episode recounted both in Gylfaginning and in the poem Lokasenna, from the Poetic Edda, in which Loki insults the gods at a feast shortly before being captured.
Interpretation — Eddic Sources (Snorri Sturluson)
In the Eddic sources, Loki is a fundamentally ambiguous figure: at times he assists the gods with his cunning — often solving problems he himself caused — and at other times he betrays them devastatingly, as in Baldr's murder. His hybrid genealogy, a giant raised among the Aesir, and his fathering of monsters associated with the end of the world make him a structurally unstable figure within the pantheon, whose loyalty is never entirely reliable.
Interpretation — Reconstructed Norse Folk Religion (Ásatrú)
Loki is a genuinely contested figure in contemporary Ásatrú communities: some practitioners honor him as patron of change, creative subversion, and moral complexity, while others avoid worshipping him due to his role in Baldr's death and his connection to the forces that destroy the cosmos at Ragnarök. This divergence is openly acknowledged within the movement as a legitimate, unresolved debate, with no single consensus on his place in worship.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Loki a god or a giant in Norse mythology?
- According to the Prose Edda, Loki is genealogically a jötunn (giant), son of Fárbauti and Laufey, but he lives among the Aesir gods in Asgard as their companion, occupying an ambiguous position between the two categories of beings.
- What is Loki's role in the death of Baldr?
- According to Gylfaginning, Loki discovers that mistletoe is the only thing in the world that had not sworn not to harm Baldr, fashions a dart from it, and tricks the blind god Höðr into throwing it at Baldr, killing him — and afterward prevents his return from the realm of the dead by refusing to weep for him.
Sources
- Snorri Sturluson (trans. Anthony Faulkes). The Prose Edda (c. 1220 (1987 ed.)).
- Anonymous (trans. Carolyne Larrington). The Poetic Edda (13th c. manuscript (2014 ed.)).
- H. R. Ellis Davidson. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964).