Loki: From Trickster to Murderer and back again
Okay, so I have alluded to this a few times in my blog, but never really got into it. But what the heck? I have been sick for most of the month of December and I can’t sleep as a result. Why not work out my frustrations this way?
Loki. A tricky topic at the best of times. If you are hoping for my opinion on the worshipfulness of Loki in modern Heathen practice (or even historical Heathen practice) you are in for a let down. No, what bothers me about Loki is very specifically Loki’s role in the story arc of the death of Baldr.
Honestly, Loki’s character makes perfect sense up until then. They are a trickster figure who makes mistakes and then finds ways to set them right. We see similar patterns with other trickster figures around the world.
But then there is Loki’s role in the death of Baldr. Suddenly Loki takes on a sinister (and unredemptive?) role.
Baldr has his dream that he will die but it isn’t clear how. So Odin goes to ask the sorceress. Meanwhile, Frigg asks everything in all 9 worlds to vow not to harm Baldr, well… almost everything. She thinks Mistletoe is too young to oath or be a threat for that matter. Which might be fine except she tells a strange woman who comes to her hall that Mistletoe did not oath. This woman is Loki in disguise, at least according to Snorri. And since we have no other sources on this part of the story, I guess we have to take that at face value. That alone is not really strange that Loki would sneak around disguising themselves. It is the next part, where Loki guides Hodr’s hand as he shoots the dart that kills Baldr. Now, Loki makes a lot of bad choices, and gets into a lot of trouble, but it seems very strange and sudden that they would just start openly killing one of the Aesir and seemingly without cause. Especially Odin’s son when Loki and Odin are blood brothers.
Now, there is some question in my mind whether Loki has any choice in any of this. The sorceress predicts in Baldr’s Draumar that the world will end when Loki escapes their bonds, which suggests in the end they must be bound. Just as in the end Baldr must die and stay dead until Ragnarok, as that is his fate as well. So perhaps Loki knows fate cannot be escaped and is therefore helping it along. Or maybe they are an unwilling participant in their fate unfolding. (If the latter, then Loki seems to lack motive for wanting Baldr dead.) Is all this explained in a version of the story that did not survive? Was there something contextual that we as modern people are not understanding? Or did Snorri rewrite the story in a confusing way to suit his own ends? We know in the end Loki must be bound. The interesting part is the conflicting stories about what happens leading up to the binding of Loki.
We know that after Hermod visits Baldr and Nanna in Helheim, Hel agrees to release them if everything weeps for Baldr. And everything does, except the Giantess Thokk. Now this time Snorri writes just that men believe Thokk to also be Loki. It is much less clear than if Loki was the woman who visited Frigg and found out about Mistletoe. So (maybe) Loki continues to condemn Baldr to the realm of the dead. Now here we could actually see a clear motive, if it were true. Baldr must be a great prize for Hel, who is of course, Loki’s daughter.
Here is where the story diverges. If we continue with Snorri’s account then the Gods realize Loki is to blame for Baldr’s death and continued interment in Helheim, so Loki flees to the house with the 4 doors to the 4 directions where they hide and fish for their food, until they see the Gods coming. Then Loki disguises as a salmon. They are eventually caught then bound in the cave in Midgard. This all seems very neat and tidy until we realize there is another version of the story.
In that version the Gods have a feast in Aegir’s hall to mourn Baldr. Loki slays one of Aegir's servants and is sent out of the Hall, but angrily returns and reminds Odin that he vowed that Loki would always be welcome to drink at the table with him. Loki then insults all the Gods in turn in flyting. Finally insulting everyone so much that Thor comes in and threatens to end Loki and Loki flees. Then Loki runs to the house previously mentioned in the Snorri story. If this version is to be believed then it becomes a question of if Loki is bound for killing Baldr or for insulting the Gods.
Odin is always trying to fight fate, and yet is not successful. This stays true in his attempts to find a way to keep Baldr alive. What is interesting is that Frigg also tries to fight fate, having seen it herself that Baldr would die. So perhaps the Gods are not mad at Loki at all for Baldr’s fate, because it could not have been avoided. Perhaps Loki is bound because they so rudely abused Aegir’s hospitality and insulted all of the Gods. This would be quite a serious offence that would cause othering to occur.
Loki was fated to be bound, but it perhaps had nothing to do with Baldr at all. Which makes me further question Snorri’s story. It does say in the Lokasenna that Loki was in some way responsible for Baldr’s death. I question whether the giantess Thokk was actually Loki. I also wonder if Snorri rewrote the story as Loki going out of their way to find out Baldr’s weakness and guiding Hodr’s hand. Perhaps Loki did hear from Frigg about Mistletoe and perhaps they told Hodr about it. Perhaps Hodr was jealous of his brother and acted of his own volition to kill Baldr.
There is also the story in Gesta Danorum, of Hotherus and Balderus fighting for love. This is much like many other stories in other parts of the world fighting, one representing the light and one the darkness, and it does raise questions if this was the original story of Baldr’s death.
Snorri’s story definitely is problematic in other ways. For example, at Loki’s binding he gives the name of Loki’s sons as “Nari (or Narfi) and Vali.” This makes no sense as Vali is the name of Odin’s son who is to avenge Baldr’s death. Other scholars have suggested it is actually Vili rather than Vali, but again… Vili is one of Odin’s brother’s. I think Ursula Dronke’s translation in which Nari and Narfi are the two brothers makes the most sense, because siblings of them have similar names like that, just like Freyr and Freyja. Further, Nari means “corpse” which alludes to his fate.
So where does that leave us? Well, Baldr dies and Hodr kills him with some sort of assistance from Loki. It is unclear if this is willing assistance. The Giantess Thokk will not weep for Baldr, and may be Loki but this is very unclear. Loki does something to enrage the Gods, either killing Baldr or being an incredibly rude guest. This leads to them running from the Gods and transforming themselves into a salmon before eventually being caught and bound until Ragnarok as was predicted.
So either I would read it as Loki is the only one who is respecting that fate cannot be changed even by the Gods, or else, Loki had the misfortune of being tricked by Hodr, and this is not what enrages the Gods, but rather them killing a servant while drunk and then making an ass of themselves. Either way Loki’s fate was already known by the sorceress and they could not escape it. In either case, these interpretations make Loki back into the trickster that is seen in other stories in the Lore, rather than the monster Snorri seems to be painting them as to further his narrative about Ragnarok. Snorri seems to be trying to make Ragnarok like something out of Revelations, when really it is likely a story about the natural cycles of the worlds that are larger than those of just Midgard.
Further Reading:
Gylfaginning
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre04.htm
Lokasenna
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe10.htm
Baldrs Draumar
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe13.htm
Gesta Danorum
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1150/1150-h/1150-h.htm
Image Source:
“Baldur’s Death” by Franz Stassen, 1920.
