Admit it. When I say ‘Loki’, this is what first comes into your mind.
Many Lokians (that’s what we call ourselves, those of us who are partial to Him as opposed to Thor or Odin) rail against this fact and grouse about how hard it is to find pics that aren’t from the MCU.
But for my part, I am fine with it. I have two shirts for Marvel!Loki and a key chain on my bag of his helmet, amoung a few other trinkets.
But let me give you the differences between the Loki, and by extension Thor, of the MCU and the Loki I will be mostly talking about this month. (And for the record, I don’t think Loki is much bothered by the association. I can’t see Him getting ticked about having His name being screamed out by hundreds of people rubbing one off. And He is a shape shifter by nature anyway. But I digress.)
First, a bit about my religion. The name it is best known by is Asatru, which translates to ‘true to the Aesir’. The Aesir are the predominant family line of the Norse gods, Odin and Thor’s people. The other major group is the Vanir, to which Frey and Freya belong.
Tucked away in a corner is those of us who throw our lot in more with the giants than the gods. There Loki’s family is seen as the main family group and are called the Rokkr by some.
Since I have sworn myself to Loki and not the Aesir, I do not call myself Asatru. I use the term ‘Norse Heathen’ on occasion but more often say ‘Lokian’. That is a peculiarity to us, as a follower of Thor is called a Thorsman and for Odin, an Odinsman.
(A word, at this time, about my use of capitalization in this post. In the Christian faith, ‘God’ is always capitalized. When I speak of the gods in Asatru, I myself use a lowercase ‘g’. The reason for this is I regard ‘God’ to be as much a title as a name.
It is along the lines of Frey and Freya, in my opinion. Those are not the names of those particular deities, but are as titles. ‘Frey’ translates to ‘Lord’ and ‘Freya’ is ‘Lady’. We do not know Freya’s true name, while Frey’s is ‘Ing’.
So I do not capitalize the word ‘god’, but I do keep to the habit of capitalizing pronouns that refer to the gods and the giants. But I will not do so when referring to the MCU. Confused yet?)
Loki is not son, adopted or otherwise, to Odin. Most hold to the belief that they are blood brothers. Which means Loki is not brother to Thor. They are most often traveling companions, when Loki has not given Thor cause to threaten Him with death.
In the first movie, Loki discovers he is a frost giant, not an Asgardian as he believed. His father is Laufey, king of Jotunheim.
In Norse cosmology, there are nine worlds, bound together by the branches and roots of the great world tree, Yggdrasil. You see Yggdrasil in the credits of Thor.
I have to tell you, when I saw Yggdrasil depicted as the cosmos, time just stopped for a second. It was just so right and was worth the forgiveness of many sins of the movie.
Jotunheim is one of these worlds, as are Asgard and Midgard. And it is a realm of giants, as jotun is another name for giants, but not the frost giants. They dwell in Niflheim, one of the two primordial realms, the other being the realm of the fire thurses (another word for giants) called Muspellheim. You can glimpse them along with the other worlds in The Dark World.
Loki does have a parent named Laufey, but it is His mother. His father’s name is Farbauti. And neither are frost giants. Laufey is an island giant and Farbauti is a fire thurse. Loki is a bit of an aberration in that He carries His mother’s name as opposed to His father’s. Thor is more in keeping in line with tradition as He is Thor Odinson. Some Asatru who claim alliegeance to a particular god will do this as well. If you look at this week’s drabble pic, you will see it was taken by Steve Odinson. A female would use dottir.
Frigg is really Thor’s stepmother. Thor’s mother is Jord, a giant associated with the earth. Odin’s mother is also a giant, named Bestla.
As you see in a past Facebook banner of mine, both Loki and Thor are gingers. One of Loki’s nicknames is ‘Flame hair’. But there is historical evidence of Thor as being seen as a blond in at least one instance and there are Lokians who saw Him as being dark-haired before Tom came along.
As opposed to the movies, Thor is married to Sif, who is not a warrior and has long blonde hair. They have a daughter together, while Sif has a son from another and Thor has two sons with others.
As for Loki, *sighs*, let’s get to the part you rarely hear about first. He is married to Sigyn, who was a ward of Frey and Freya’s father, Njord. They have two sons, Narvi and Vali. He might also have two daughters from a first marriage, depending on the stories you hear.
Now the parts everyone goes on about.
Slepnir. He makes a very brief appearance in the first movie, Odin is astride him when he comes to retrieve Thor and the others from Jotunheim. Yes, he does have eight legs. And yes, Loki is his mother. Now for the story behind it.
A man arrived in Asgard and offered to build impenetrable walls around the halls in the space of six months, if I remember right, with only his horse as help. But he wanted the sun, the moon, and Freya’s hand in marriage as payment. Loki convinced the Aesir to go along with it, doubting he could achieve the goal.
Well, the man did better than expected and was three days from winning the bet. The gods demanded Loki fix this, since it had been His idea. Loki realized the help provided by the horse, so He transformed Himself into a mare to lure the horse away. When the man discovered the disappearance, he raged against the gods and revealed himself as a giant. Thor dispatched the giant and the Aesir had the protection of the walls.
And yes, some months later Loki did return with Slepnir in tow. He does not have a thing for horses. It was the best He could come up with to save His neck.
And now the better known of his children, often referred to as the monstrous children.
Before Loki married to Sigyn, he was consort to Angrboda, a giant of no small prestige. They have three children, though you will most often see only two of them.
Fenrir (or Fenris) Lokison, the Great Wolf. Bound out of fear of the destruction He will bring.
Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent. Seen as a threat as well and consigned to the ocean. Of a size as to be wrapped around the whole of Midgard, It clasps It’s tail in It’s mouth.
They are even represented in the movies.
But there is a sister, one who appears less frequently with Her siblings in the fan art.
Hel (or Hela) Half-Rotten, ruler of Helheim, where most will go after death. Especially those who die the ‘straw death’ of old age or disease.
So this is my long winded, though ultimately brief, write up about Loki Laufeyson. There’s loads more, of course, and we’ll see how much I get to. But it’s a start about the Loki of Asatru.
And it’s not to say I won’t talk about other pop culture aspects of Him.
Desert Words 