Norse

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Norse

Loki

The Trickster of Asgard

Domain: Trickery & Chaos
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Scepter of Illusion

Speak with Loki

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Norse & Germanic peoples

Region

Scandinavia & northern Europe

Period

Viking Age, 8th–11th c.

The gods of Asgard were worshipped by the Norse peoples of Scandinavia and by the Germanic tribes, especially during the Viking Age. Warriors sought to die in battle to reach Odin's Valhalla, and the myths were preserved in the Icelandic Eddas. The cult declined with the region's Christianization around the year 1000.

The Norse celebrated blóts, seasonal sacrifices with feasts of meat and mead, such as the Yule of the winter solstice. The great temple at Uppsala, in Sweden, hosted every nine years one of the largest sacrificial festivals of the Viking world.

At a glance

Loki (Lopt, Laufeyjarson) is a central and ambiguous figure in Norse mythology, a shape-shifter and agent of crises and solutions among the gods. In Snorri's genealogy, he is the son of the giant Fárbauti and of Laufey or Nál, and is counted among the Æsir; in Lokasenna, he reminds Odin that they mixed their blood. The accounts show Loki using Freyja's borrowed falcon plumage, changing into a fly, a mare, and a salmon, among other forms, and helping obtain divine treasures such as Mjölnir and Gungnir. With Angrboda he fathers Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel. In Snorri, he arranges Balder's death with a mistletoe dart; Gylfaginning reports the view that Thökk, who refuses to weep for Balder, is Loki in disguise. He is later bound, though the prose and poetic accounts vary in the names attached to the punishment.

15 min read · Reviewed on October 8, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Serpent, fishing net, flames and shifting shapes

Family

Parents

FarbautiLaufey or Nál

Siblings

ByleistHelblindi

Loki

Unions

SigynAngrboda

Children

Fenrir Jörmungandr HelSleipnirNarfiVali

Genealogy according to Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning 33, 42, 49–50; Skáldskaparmál I and 35; Poetic Edda, Lokasenna and Völuspá; Haustlöng as quoted in Skáldskaparmál I.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning 33–34, 42, 49–50. translation: Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916). read
Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál 35, pp. 145–147. translation: Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916). read
Anonymous, Lokasenna: introductory prose, 9–10 and closing prose, pp. 152–156, 172–173. translation: Henry Adams Bellows (1923). read
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, The Death of Balder §54. translation: Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda (1901), pp. 137–139. read
Anonymous, Þrymskviða 1–32; Völuspá 31–35, 50–51. translation: Henry Adams Bellows (1923). read
Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál I, XVI, XVIII, XXXV. translation: Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916). read

Studies

Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, Gosforth 01. open
Anders Horsbøl Nielsen; Claus Skriver, Oldtiden i Hedensted Kommune. open
Ármann Jakobsson, The Flexible Masculinity of Loki. 2020. open
James Parkhouse, Loki the Slandered God? Selective Omission of Skaldic Citations in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda. 2021. open
Marvel, Loki: In Comics. open

Name and epithets

Snorri lists Loki as Laufeyjarson, son of Laufey, and also gives the names Loptr among his designations. The matronymic identifies his mother; it does not make him Odin's son.

In the ancient sources

Prose Edda (Snorri Sturluson), c. 1220 CE. Prose narratives about Loki's genealogy, Idunn and Þjazi, the builder, divine treasures, Balder's death, and Loki's binding.

The myths

The Treasures of the Gods and the Forging of Mjölnir. In Snorri Sturluson's Skáldskaparmál, Loki cuts off Sif's hair and, threatened by Thor, promises compensation through the dwarfs.

Worship and archaeology

The sources examined here are medieval literary texts; they do not document a ritual calendar, offerings, or a shrine dedicated to Loki.

How the god was depicted

Snaptun: Trap Danmark describes the stone and its function protecting a bellows, and considers identification of the face as Loki probable; no inscription names him.

What scholars debate

Snorri, skaldic poetry, and ambivalence. The scholarly question is not simply whether Loki is “good” or “evil,” but how medieval texts arrange divergent evidence.

After antiquity

Marvel presents its Loki as Odin's adopted son and Thor's adopted brother. This fictional arrangement differs from Snorri's genealogy, which names Fárbauti and Laufey, and from the blood pact recalled in Lokasenna.

Did you know?

The Snaptun stone, found on the beach in 1950, protected a forge bellows. Its carved face is interpreted as Loki with his mouth sewn shut; the identification is probable rather than an inscription naming the god.

Codex relic

Scepter of Illusion. A runic scepter that distorts visual reality, generating perfect clones.

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