Thursday, April 14, 2011

LOKI THE TRICKSTER


LOKI
 God of Hokey Pokey and one of the world's major Trickster Gods.

Loki was a rascal; crafty, sneaky, silly and malicious. The son of two Giants, he was so outrageously mischievous that he even sneaked his way into becoming a God. He was the first Anti-Hero, quick-witting his way out of  tight corners and confrontations caused by his own misdeeds.

Now if you have not heard of Minnie before now, and you have been following my blog, then you have not been reading my blog . I am not sure how long Minnie is going to stay around, but for now she always has something to say.

Minnie-ism for today:
" Hokey-Pokey Loki, you did it again and I never saw it coming!Thats what I call, pulling a Loki"

Lokis'  first escapade was in true form. When the Gods were struggling to build Åsgard, they ran out of funds.  All the basic construction had been completed but they needed a large wall to keep out all the riff-raff.

Loki came up with the plan of contracting a giant to do the job. As payment, and only if he managed to complete his work on schedule, the giant asked for the Goddess Freya. The Gods were not too sure. "Don't worry," advised Loki. "He'll never manage it on his own, even if he works night and day. We'll just let him keep the wheelbarrow or something."

Alas, the giant was not on his own. He had a huge stallion called Svadilfari, which could haul boulders like there was no tomorrow. With three days to go, Freya was in distress and the Gods aghast.

Now Loki, like fire and smoke, was a shape-shifter. A talent he'd developed to make him the shiftiest rascal of all time. So he changed himself into a mare and seduced the Giant's stallion. The both of them  pranced off into the woods,  and Svadilfari was led far away from the stone pile.

With his horse missing, the Giant didn't quite make the schedule. Seething with rage, he tried to take Freya by force but unfortunatly for him Thor came along and cracked his skull with his famous hammer.

Meanwhile Loki was having a fine old time frolicking in the fields. In fact he became pregnant, and gave birth to a fine baby boy stallion with eight legs. He gave this as a gift to ODIN and it was called Sleipnir.

Loki was now well in with Odin and his son Thor, with whom he shared numerous adventures. Thor, the perfect fall guy, was even once persuaded to appear in drag as the prospective bride of a giant. That is another story. Thor could always be relied on to supply the muscle when corners became too tight for Lokis' trickery.

Loki also had many run-ins with the dwarves, which he cheated at any opportunity until they stitched his mouth shut, which kept him quiet for quite some time. That is my cue for now. There are so many stories of Loki that they could fill a book. Do you know anyone like him?

22 comments:

Bish Denham said...

What a hoot! Those crazy Norse, insane from the cold. There seem to trickster characters in most mythologies. In the Caribbean it's Anansi the Spider who came over with the slaves from Africa. He made his way into the United States and his stories became those of Uncle Remus.

Tony Payne said...

I have come across a few people like Loki. I still believe that there is some historical truth behind these legends. It would be wonderful to know the origins of these tales.

Laura Eno said...

Google is so dumb sometimes. This is the 3rd time I've followed you - I hope it finally sticks!
Loki is one of those great universal characters. I never realized he had so many exploits. Gave birth to a stallion with 8 legs?
You have me hooked on these!

Bob Scotney said...

It is interesting to me to hear these stories again. I got to know some from the names given to the oil and gas fields in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea.

Hart Johnson said...

Well any traickster who can convince a god to appear in drag is okay by me! And a male who can give birth is darned impressive! I love Loki!

Dafeenah said...

I use to know a Loki. His jokes were always just a little bit more mean than fun. I always tried to avoid him as much as possible. I could only take so much Loki and then I needed a break.

Dafeenah

Unknown said...

"Lokke slår sin havre" .......kt

Unknown said...

I'm new here. *waves* I love the Minnie-isms!

Unknown said...

Your A-Z is like a lesson in Classics within every post! Love them!

I'm pretty interested in Loki at the moment, because the Thor movie comes out here in a few weeks! :-) Plus, he's a great model for the villains in the stories I write.

EJ

Anonymous said...

I remember Loki from the Thor comic books I bought as a kid. He was quite the character. Always wanted to see him get his butt kicked LOL!

Anonymous said...

I love Loki! When I studied mythology I always got the most laughs out of him. Boy do i ever know people like him! (Oh wait...I've been compared to him a few times! although I never gave birth to an 8 legged stallion thank God!)

Crazy Life of a Writing Mom said...

Loki is awesome! I'd love to hear about his future shenanigans with the dwarves :)

Now I'm thinking I should have named my son Loki LOL!

Leovi said...

Beautiful and interesting history. I have also some pictures of the mythology dicadas nódica:
http://lafotografiaefectistaabstracta.blogspot.com/2011/03/fotos-abstractas-1283-1284-nacimiento.html

http://lafotografiaefectistaabstracta.blogspot.com/2011/02/foto-abstracta-1273-1274-el-pozo-de-la.html

Golden Eagle said...

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (a really good MG book) has Loki as one of the main characters--it was interesting to read how he used the legends about the gods in the story. :)

N. R. Williams said...

I don't know anyone personally but I think Hollywood has its share as well as NYC's Broadway.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.

Murees Dupè said...

Great story. Not so sure if I like Loki. But I love Minnie.

Unknown said...

It's like a trip down memory lane for me - Freya, Odin, Thor. I remember Loki as the "naughty" one but my books didn't say he got pregnant! (Well, they were for eight year olds). LOL I prefer this version. Ummm...just curious - how did he get pregnant? :)

Did Minnie have some other clothes on the other day or am I dreaming?
Sue Roebuck (now you know!)

Michael Di Gesu said...

Siv,

I thoroughly enjoyed your story of the shenanigans of LOKI....

Unknown said...

I've read of a few tricksters recently (as part of African mythology) but Loki wasn't one of them (duh, not being African!). Was a tad confused by the "he got pregant" bit, but I guess weird stuff like that happens when you're a shape-shifting god!

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Siv .. gosh what a great number of tales - I certainly hadn't heard them all .. we forget the myths .. and it's so good to be reminded. There's definitely many lokis in this world ..

Thanks - good to read .. Hilary

Anonymous said...

Very interesting. You should check out the Age of Mythology game. It includes Norse, Egyptian and Greek mythology. A booklet with facts about each god is included.

Arild Henriksen - A random Norwegian guy.

Anonymous said...

I would love to see them pull some of this off in the Thor movies, but, Loki giving birth as a mare is one I think Tom Hiddleston says he is just not equipped to play. HAHA. Thor dressed up as woman in drag, Chris Hemsworth, would be one of the legends if I were writing Thor 2 or Thor 3 I would add for the comical relifef. That is so darn funny!