Sæmund’s Edda (Thorpe’s tr.).
At first a god, Loki gradually becomes “god and devil combined,” and ends by being an exact counterpart of the mediæval Lucifer, the prince of lies, “the originator of deceit, and the backbiter” of the Æsir.
While Thor is the embodiment of Northern activity, Loki represents recreation, and the close companionship early established between these two gods shows very plainly how soon our ancestors realized that both were necessary to the welfare of mankind. Thor is ever busy and ever in dead earnest, but Loki makes fun of everything, until at last his love of mischief leads him entirely astray, and he loses all love for good and becomes utterly selfish and malevolent.
Loki’s Character
He represents evil in the seductive and seemingly beautiful form in which it glides about through the world. On account of this deceptive appearance the gods did not at first avoid him, but considered him one of their number, took him with them wherever they went, and admitted him not only to their banquets and merrymakings, but also to their council hall, where they, unfortunately, too often listened to his advice.
As we have already seen, Loki played a prominent part in the creation of man, endowing him with the power of motion, and causing the blood to circulate freely through his veins and inspire him with passions. As personification of fire as well as of mischief, Loki (lightning) is often seen with Thor (thunder), whom he accompanies to Jötun-heim to recover his hammer, to Utgard-Loki’s castle, and to Geirrod’s house. It is he who steals Freya’s necklace and Sif’s hair, and betrays Idun into the power of Thiassi; and although he sometimes gives the gods good advice and affords them real help, it is only to extricate them from some predicament into which he has rashly inveigled them.
Some authorities declare that, instead of making part of the creative trilogy (Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur or Loki), this god originally belonged to a pre-Odinic race of deities, and was the son of the great giant Fornjotnr (Ymir), his brothers being Kari (air) and Hler (water), and his sister Ran, the terrible goddess of the sea. Other mythologists, however, make him the son of the giant Farbauti, who has been identified with Bergelmir, the sole survivor of the deluge, and of Laufeia (leafy isle) or Nal (vessel), his mother, thus stating that his connection with Odin was only that of the Northern oath of good fellowship.
Loki (fire) first married Glut (glow), who bore him two daughters, Eisa (embers) and Einmyria (ashes); it is therefore very evident that Norsemen considered him emblematic of the hearth fire, and when the flaming wood crackles on the hearth the good-wives in the North are still wont to say that Loki is beating his children. Besides this wife, Loki is also said to have married the giantess Angur-boda (the anguish-boding), who dwelt in Jötun-heim, and, as we have already seen, bore him the three monsters, Hel, goddess of death, the Midgard snake Iörmungandr, and the grim wolf Fenris.
“Loki begat the wolf
With Angur-boda.”