When I first saw Loki in the MCU, I was captivated by him. An antagonist filled with hate, anger, and jealousy, yet somehow he still cared for his family. He loved his mother, but at the end he is the one who brings about her death. I love this kind of tragedy, haha.
But that was the MCU's Loki. The real Loki comes from Norse mythology, the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn/giant) and Laufey (a goddess/giantess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. He was the Norse god of mischief, trickery, and deception.
Loki had three wives at different times in his life. His first wife was Glut (her name meant glow). She was the first fire-giantess who left Muspellheim (realm of fire) and settled in the Iron Wood–a forest at the east of Midgard which was inhabited by trollwomen. She gets adopted by Angrboda, as her sister.
Angrboda and Loki liked each other at that time but they both were too proud to announce their love. Eventually Angrboda will offer Glut to Loki as a bride just to show Loki that she doesn't care about him.
Loki had twin daughters with Glut, Einmyria and Eisa, the only children he had that the gods allowed to live their lives in peace. The twins provided stamina, energy, and strength to athletes, martial artists, and others who engaged in physical pursuits.
A year after their marriage, Glut left Loki so he could marry the giantess Angrboda, although little is known about her character (we know surprisingly little about the female deities; maybe at some point in history someone decided to quietly remove their stories!). Together, they became the parents of three monsters: the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard serpent Jörmungandr, and Hel, ruler of the dead.
Among Loki’s children, one he had with Angrboda, Fenrir the wolf, was the strongest. He was so powerful that the gods feared he would wreak havoc across the nine worlds. They initially tried to defeat him in battle, but all attempts failed. So they decided to trick him instead (and yet I thought Loki was the god of trickery). The gods approached Fenrir with the strongest chain they could find and told him, “Prove your strength by chaining yourself with these and try to break free.” Well, maybe they didn’t say it in those exact words, but they challenged him nonetheless. Being a proud wolf confident in his strength, Fenrir accepted and indeed managed to break the chains. This only made the gods more fearful.
So fearful, in fact, that they went to the dwarves, the master craftsmen of the Norse cosmos, and asked them to create an unbreakable chain. The dwarves made Gleipnir, a chain forged from six impossible things in the world (these things are now missing because they were used to create the chain) and softer than a silken ribbon.
The gods then approached Fenrir for the last time, asking him to bind himself with this rope, which made the wolf suspicious. Fenrir agreed on one condition: that one of the gods should place their hand in his mouth as a guarantee they would release him if he did not succeed. The only one brave enough to do this was Tyr, and it cost him his hand when Fenrir could not break free, and the gods refused to release him.
However, it is believed that Fenrir will break free when Ragnarok arrives, and will kill Odin, destroying and devouring everything across the nine realms until he is killed by one of Odin’s sons.
Jörmungandr, Loki’s second child, is a serpent capable of limitless growth. Odin feared him (as usual), and cast him into the sea surrounding Midgard, the world of men. Jörmungandr grew so massive that he encircled the entire world, biting his own tail.
It is prophesied that one sign of the end of the world is when he releases his tail. At that time, Jörmungandr and Thor will battle. Thor will manage to kill Jörmungandr, but not before the serpent injects him with a lethal amount of poison, causing Thor to die shortly after his victory.
Loki’s last child with Angrboda was Hel. Half of Hel’s body is said to be that of a beautiful woman, while the other half is a corpse (a balance like yin and yang). Odin deemed Hel well-suited to rule the land of the dead, where those Vikings who did not die bravely were sent. Her realm became known as Helheim, named after her.
It is believed that when the apocalypse comes, she will sail with an army of dishonourable dead to Asgard, alongside her father, Loki. However, there is no prophecy regarding her death.
His third wife was Sigyn, one of the Asynjur goddesses. Unfortunately, not much is known about her either in the surviving literature, except that she was Loki’s wife and goddess of victory in battle and one of the most important goddesses living in Asgard (Again?! Nothing known about the goddess of victory?!). With Sigyn, Loki had two sons, Narfi and Vali. They were neither gods nor did they possess any special skills—they were born only to die, by paying the price for their father’s sins.
Loki's sons from his last wife, Sigyn, lived tragic lives, suffering for their father’s sins.
At some point in Loki’s life, Odin and Frigg had a son—Balder, the most noble and handsome god, loved by everyone in the cosmos. His mother, Frigg, the goddess of fertility and motherhood, became so protective of him that she visited every object in the world, making them promise never to harm her son. In this way, she made Balder invincible. With Balder now unable to be hurt, the gods made a game of throwing things at him each evening, watching with delight as everything bounced off harmlessly.
After a time, Loki grew determined to find Balder’s weakness. One evening, he shapeshifted into an old woman and befriended Balder. When Balder let his guard down, Loki expressed surprise that Frigg had spoken to everything in existence. In response, Balder corrected him, revealing that she had forgotten to speak to one thing—the humble mistletoe plant—but he dismissed it as unimportant.
Seizing this knowledge, Loki crafted a dart from mistletoe and joined the gods during one of their evening games. He found Balder’s blind brother, Hodr, and asked why he never participated. Hodr reminded Loki of his blindness. Loki offered to help, placing the mistletoe in Hodr’s hand and guiding him to aim at Balder. Hodr threw the dart, and to everyone’s shock, Balder fell dead.
Frigg and Odin were devastated by the loss of their beloved son. In their grief, they killed Hodr in revenge.
Since Balder had not died in battle, his soul went to Helheim. The gods, desperate to save him, sought to bring him back, but Hel, the ruler of Helheim, set a condition: everyone in existence must cry for Balder to prove he was truly loved by all. The gods accepted this challenge and managed to make everyone weep for Balder—everyone except for an old witch who, it turned out, was Loki in disguise.
When Loki’s role in Balder’s death was eventually revealed in a party, the gods decided to punish him severely. They not only imprisoned Loki but also turned one of his sons, Vali, into a mindless wolf who attacked and tore apart his brother Narfi. The gods then used Narfi’s intestines to chain Loki to a rock, placing a venomous serpent above his head to drip its stinging poison onto him, causing him to writhe in agony for eternity. Only his wife, Sigyn, tried to ease his suffering by holding a bowl under the serpent’s fangs.
Besides him having kids with women, one time he was the one who gave birth to his child!
When the world was young and Asgard had no fortifications, a man approached the gods and offered to build them a mighty wall. But he had one condition: he wanted to marry Freya, the goddess of beauty, war, and love. Naturally, the gods rejected such a demand. However, Loki convinced them to accept the offer, but with a catch—he told the builder he had only one season to complete the wall, and he wasn’t allowed to use anyone's help. This way, the task would be impossible, and the builder would only finish part of the wall, leaving the gods without any obligation to pay him.
The builder accepted their terms but requested to use his horse, Svaðilfari, to which the gods agreed. Svaðilfari was an exceptionally strong horse, and with his help, the builder was nearly able to complete the wall by the end of the season. The gods, realising the builder might succeed, grew angry with Loki and demanded that he ensure the man could not finish the wall.
To thwart the builder, Loki transformed himself into a stunning mare and lured Svaðilfari away from the worksite. Without his horse, the builder could not complete the wall and thus did not receive his reward.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Some time later, Loki returned with a child—an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir. Loki gave Sleipnir to Odin. Sleipnir was the fastest and strongest horse in existence, capable of travelling across all nine worlds.
There is another version of the story regarding Loki’s wives that suggests Glut was never Loki’s wife but rather the wife of Logi. In this version, Angrboda and Sigyn are believed to be the same woman, known by different names. It also proposes that Fenrir, the great wolf, is actually Vali, after the gods transformed him into a wolf. Similarly, Jörmungandr, the serpent, is thought to be Narfi, who was turned into a snake using his own intestines after he was torn apart by his brother Vali. In this version Loki has only one wife; Sigyn.
Regardless, the day Loki and his children become free, they will surely get their revenge and destroy the world–all because the gods feared their power. And since god of victory; Sigyn can not choose between her family (Loki and their children) and her kin (Gods, her brothers and sisters) , no side will win.
There is a lesson here. Evils are not born, they are made—and it seems Odin might have created plenty of them!
Hi there! We're Chris and Sheila, an artistic pair from distant corners of the globe—one from Iran and the other from the Falkland Islands!
Passionate about sci-fi and fantasy, we’re now digital nomads on a quest to write our debut novels. Join us as we explore the world and beyond!
