So, naturally, when Thiazi threatens to take away the Aesir's reproductive power, Odin is on the scene, even if only in a bit part. It is Loki who bears the brunt of the action (quite literally). Odin is there as the one who denies his giant ties, while Loki finds that not denying his has put him in a bind. His shifting loyalties are a problem in this story, as in all the myths, until finally in the end Loki chooses for keeps; he goes over to the giants. Thus the two can be seen as inverted parallels; Odin creates the cosmos through denying his gianthood, but Loki destroys it through acknowledging his.
Loki
The man seated next to Ægir was Bragi, and they took part together in drinking and in converse: Bragi told Ægir of many things which had come to pass among the Æsir. He began the story at the point where two of the Æsir, Odin and Hœnir, departed from home and were wandering over mountains and wastes, and food was hard to find. But when they came down into a certain dale, they saw a herd of oxen, took one ox, and set about cooking it. Now when they thought that it must be cooked, they broke up the fire, and it was not cooked. After a while had passed, they having scattered the fire a second time, and it was not cooked, they took counsel together, asking each other what it might mean. Then they heard a voice speaking in the oak up above them, declaring that he who sat there confessed he had caused the lack of virtue in the fire. They looked thither, and there sat an eagle; and it was no small one. Then the eagle said: “If ye are willing to give me my fill of the ox, then it will cook in the fire." They assented to this. Then he let himself float down from the tree and alighted by the fire, and forthwith at the very first took unto himself the two hams of the ox, and both shoulders. Eventually the whole ox was eaten, and the two Æsir went home hungry.
This rather abbreviated version of Hst comes from The Prose Edda Minus Loki, edited by Mikki L. Fraser, from Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur's translation.[89] It shows just how little story there is without Loki. Thiazi gets all the food, and Odin and Hoenir just wander off hungry. There must have been moments when Njord was lying awake in Thrymheim, wishing it had happened like that.
I began with this rather lengthy quote to prove a point - the Norse myths wouldn't be much without Loki. He stirs them up, he makes things happen. Kevin J. Wanner thinks that Loki was a poet's god, the engine for stories. Take a few gods or giants, add Loki, and stand back. Even in Hst, he is called sagna hrærir, “mover (or rouser) of tales.”[90] Wanner goes further than this, and says that:
In short, it is Loki who ensures both that Ódinn has an heir to succeed and remember him and that there is something about him that is worth remembering.[91]
Or, as Michael Chabon describes him: "god of the endlessly complicating nature of plot, of storytelling itself."[92] (I especially liked his description of reading the D'Aulaires version of the Eddas: 'a book whose subtitle might have been "How Loki Ruined the World and Made It Worth Talking About."'[93])
A simple analysis of Hst and Snorri's sequel will show this. It is Loki who strikes Thiazi, who helps kidnap Idunn, who steals her back, who makes the obviously displeased Skadi laugh and saves the Aesir's bacon. He is the thread that connects the two halves of the story, because the cast of main characters changes completely from one half to the other. Only Loki remains, as the connecting element. As the god who revels in his half-giant status, this makes sense. He flits between the two worlds, Asgard and Jotunheim.
His place among the gods is an odd one, and Snorri shows open disapproval of it:
Also counted among the Aesir is one whom some call Slanderer of the Gods, the Source of Deceit, and the Disgrace of All Gods and Men.
(Gylf 33, Faulkes' trans.)
As John Lindow points out, this must mean that Loki isn't a true god, or once wasn't a god. Snorri goes on to describe Loki's family, his giant father Farbauti, and his mother, Laufey or Nal, which seems to clarify matters. Loki has a giant for a father, so he isn't of the Aesir's kin originally.
We know about his giant father because Snorri tells us so, both in Gylf and Skld He was taking his cue from older poems that called Loki as sonr Farbauta. Hst is one of them:
The gracious lord of earth [Odin] bade Farbauti's son [Loki] quickly share out the bow-string-Var [Skadi's] whale [ox] among the fellows.
(Skld Faulkes)
Another is Husdrapa:
Renowned defender [Heimdall] of the powers' way [Bifrost], kind of counsel, competes with Farbauti's terribly sly son at Singastein.
(Skld. Faulkes)
We don't know very much about his mother, including what sort of what sort of being she was. Laufey or "Leafy Island" seems an unlikely name for a giantess, which has led to speculation that she is an Asynia. Liberman, however, suggests that Laufey simply means "Earth" and so does Nál, the other name given for her.[94] (Snorri, on the other hand, connects it to Old Norse nál, "needle".) Liberman sees Nal and Loki as chthonian deities. (Note that it is mainly the older poems that refer to Loki as Farbauti's son.)
According to Simek, "[i]n poetry Loki is always called Loki Laufeyjarson." (Although I found the two kennings referring to Farbauti in his book as well.) Apart from being mentioned as his mother in Gylf and Skld, Laufey is mentioned in Sorla thattr:
There was a man called Farbauti who was a peasant and had a wife called Laufey. She was thin and meagre, and so she was called 'Needle.' They had no children except a son who was called Loki. He was not a big man, but he early developed a caustic tongue and was alert in trickery and unequalled in that kind of cleverness which is called cunning. He was very full of guile even in his youth, and for this reason he was called Loki the Sly.[95]
(Ch. 2, Kershaw's trans.)
Loki is mentioned twice in Gylf as Loki Laufeyjarson, and once in Skld Laufey also appears in the Thulur, or lists for poets, in a list of goddesses.[96]
Simek isn't convinced by 'Leafy Island" and suggests she may have been a tree-goddess, from *lauf-awiaz, "the one full of leaves".[97] He also suggests "the one who awakens confidence", by analogy to the Gothic galaufs. However, he admits that none of these explanations fit with the sort of family she has.[98] (Clearly he doesn't agree with Liberman, or at least is less sure that she's chthonic.)
But the explanatory power of the Asynia thesis is not to be denied. Lindow notes that Loki is always called Laufeyjarsson instead of Farbautason, and that Laufey isn't a "threatening" name, unlike those of many giantesses. Also, the use of a mother's name can indicate a missing or unreliable father.[99]
It can't be decided for certain, because in Scandinavian society kin was reckoned bilaterally, although in the myths it tended to be reckoned through the father's line.[100] Loki could just as easily claim descent from his mother's side as his father's. But if he's a half-and-half it explains a lot about his actions. Since Lindow first suggested it in Murder and Vengeance Among the Gods, the theory has become very popular. (Although it doesn't explain how Tyr, whose father is also a giant, escaped hereditary taint, which is what this theory amounts to.)
The rest of Loki's family are not without interest. His brothers are named Byleistr and Helblindi. There are two kennings for Loki as Byleist's brother, one in Vsp and one in Hynd. The first has Loki at the head of the giants attacking Asgard, and the second is about his evil offspring. Helblindi, on the other hand, is unknown, although one manuscript gives it as an Odin-name. The Poetic Edda first includes it in a list of Odin's by-names, and then tells us twice that Loki can be known as Helblindi's brother. (It's tempting to tidy this up and assume that since Odin and Loki are blood-brothers, Helblindi is always Odin. Not provable, though.) At any rate, "Blind-to-Hel" is an interesting name for anyone to have.
Loki's asynia wife is named Sigyn, and they have two sons: Vali, and Narfi or Nari. (Snorri varies on this; in the chapter on Loki he says one son, but then when he's describing the binding of Loki, he says two.)
The two sons he had with Sigyn seem normal, and they should be at least half-Aesir. However, they aren't his only children. The giantess Angrboda bore hi
m three more, and as you might expect from someone named Anger-Boder, they are pretty scary.
The Fenris Wolf, the World-Serpent and Hel are not cute kids. All three of them are involved in the end of things. Hel takes all souls (except those destined for Valhalla) and she receives Baldr after his death, where he has to stay after the Aesir fail to revive him. The Fenris Wolf swallows up Odin at Ragnarok, and his two sons devour the sun and moon. The World-Serpent, who forms the boundary of our world, Midgard, kills Thor and breaks the bounds between civilization and disorder by freeing itself. (Hst itself seems to mirror this movement, as its kennings for Loki move from relatively benign ones to calling him the wolf's father, which links back to Thiazi as the "lady-wolf" or kidnapper of Idunn. As Loki is forced into siding with the jotnar, the kennings used for him change.)
Loki’s two ‘normal’ sons also come to a bad end. One is turned into a wolf by the Aesir, and turns on his brother, disembowelling him. The Aesir then take his guts and bind Loki with them. In a sense, these children of his emphasize Loki’s own wolfishness, his change from domesticated to savage, from dog to wolf.[101]
So it seems that Loki is constantly going back and forth in his loyalties between god and giant, even in his love-life. The Thiazi - Skadi myth dramatizes this by first making him help kidnap Idunn for the giants, and then get her back for the Æsir, and then wheeling him on to make an angry giantess laugh. As the action unfolds, we see him pulled this way and that, sometime literally, and getting the gods out of a hole yet again.
The story as outlined in Hst and Skld has its parallels in other myths as well. As Jan de Vries points out, the story of the giant Geirrod is very similar to this one. In it Loki borrowed Frigga's hawk-form and flew around until he reached Geirrod's hall. There he became stuck; he could not lift his feet from the windowsill. Geirrod locked Loki in a chest for three months and starved him. This time Loki's freedom was dependent on his bringing Thor to Geirrod's hall without magic belt or hammer. In this version, however, Thor deals with the giant, so Loki does not have to betray his kin.
Other tales, such as the story of the Master-Builder who made the walls of Asgard, and Ottar's were-gild in Reginsmal (see chapter on Hoenir) have Loki using his guile to get the Aesir out of a hole, after he's got them into it. This seems to be his main function in most of the myths, right up to Ragnarok, where the once-playful motif darkens.
Between two worlds: Loki as Outsider
Loki, unlike Njord, is no mediator. Of course, he never really sought that role. If you wanted to put a positive spin on his activities, you could say he’s trying for a balance of power between the two sides, so that neither can prevail. In this he differs dramatically from Skadi, who ends by persecuting him just as much as the gods do. Loki achieved the connection with Odin and his kin that Skadi sought when she asked for Baldr as her husband, but Loki seems to have soured on the Aesir. Loki was blood brother with Odin, which makes it all the more poignant when the two become enemies.
Perhaps his odd status made him feel an outsider. He is unusual among the main deities in having no home of his own. This fits with his constant travelling. Even more so than Odin, Loki is a god on the move. Some would argue that this formed a bond between them, and sets them apart from other deities, notably Njord and Skadi: They are able to adapt and change as circumstances demand:
This is also one of the implicit underpinning of the marriage between Njord and Skadhi, for neither is willing or able to transform their nature in order to be able to accommodate the other. Rather than being inexplicable (as some would have it), the blood-brotherhood of Loki and Odin seems both fitting and entirely natural in light of their mutual mutability.[102]
I have sometimes wondered if this changeableness explains the demonization of Loki. Often in history immigrants have been damned for being versatile, adaptable and clever. And mongrelized, of course. All charges which could be levelled at Loki by those who like their gods more consistent.
Hœnir
La multitude d'explications et de théories scientifiques concernant l'essence mythique d'Hcenir, constitue un contraste remarquable avec la maigreur des sources.[103]
(The multitude of explanations and scientific theories concerning the mythic essence of Hoenir contrasts remarkably with the paucity of our sources.)
We learn very little about Hoenir in Hst. We know that he is annoyed when Thiazi steals their food. He breathes angrily, but unlike Loki he doesn’t do anything about it. He then disappears from the story, as Thiazi flies off and events take their course.
However, there is another source of information in the poem. Old Norse poetry preferred not to refer to people and things directly, instead using a roundabout way of naming something called kennings. Hangatyr, for example, is a kenning for Odin, because "tyr" was a god, and the "hanged" part refers to the myth that Odin hung on the World-Tree for nine nights.
In Hst, there are four kennings that refer to Hoenir, as follows:
Phrase
Translation
Hoenis vinr
Hoenir’s friend
fet-Meila
step-Meili (another god)
holls vinars Honis
Hoenir’s loyal friend
hugreyandi Hoenis
Trier of Hoenir’s courage/mind
Just to show you how they work in the actual poem, here is a quote from North's translation, with the explanations in square brackets:
The mountain-wolf [giant] asked step-Meili [Hænir] to share out to him his fill from the holy table. The raven-god’s [Odin’s] friend [Loki] had to blow [the fire]. The battle-bold Rognir [Odin, i.e. chief] of land-whales [giants] let himself drop down where the guileless defenders of gods were sitting.[104]
Another translation, by Kock, has Hoenir “blowing”; breathing angrily as he has to share out the ox-meat with Thiazi.[105] You'll notice that Kock gives the sense of the kenning for Hoenir, rather than the literal expression:
4. Famished, fain would have his fill the mountain-dweller. Snorted the Swift-footed, seated at holy table. Flew the fiend from treetop, fierce in mind, then down to where, unwitting, waited the warders of all godheads.[106]
"Step-Meili" as a kenning for Hoenir doesn't get us very far. Kock rightly interprets it as meaning "Swift-Footed", since Meili is a god. Unfortunately, he's a very obscure god. We know him mainly from Harb, where Thor names him as a brother, and the second half of Hst also refers to Thor as Meili’s brother. Snorri says he’s a son of Odin’s, and lists him between Baldr and Vidarr (Gylf 75).
The other three kennings that mention Hoenir are all references to Loki, either as Hoenir’s friend or trier of his courage, whatever that might be. (I always imagined Loki persecuting Hoenir, who is elsewhere described as “timid” and who is known for his silence.) North puts a positive spin on this, saying that Loki sticks up for Hoenir, and saves him by striking Thiazi. I think that’s putting too much gloss on it; it seems more likely that the same tradition that labelled Hoenir timid is at play here. I also think that any description of Loki as Hoenir's "friend" might have to be adjusted for sarcasm.[107] Snorri may have felt the same, since in Skáldskaparmál he lists Hoenir second-to-last of the Aesir, the last being Loki.
That three out of four kennings for Hoenir refer to him in relation to someone else (Loki) seems par for the course for him. In Skáldskaparmál Snorri lists more kennings for Hoenir:
...the seat mate, comrade, or trusted companion of Odin, the fast-moving god, the long leg, or the king of clay.
One thing that's interesting is how often Hoenir is someone's friend or companion. It's more usual in kennings to mention someone's family connections, but if Hoenir has family the poets are not mentioning them.
Wandering gods
Hst recounts one of several myths in which Hoenir, Odin and Loki go roaming around exploring. The other two are the story of Otr's weregild and the creation of the first humans. The first story involves a very similar pattern to the Thiazi myth, as Loki kills an otter
for dinner, and the otter turns out to be a shape-shifter named Otr, whose brother demands compensation. (Sound familiar?) The gold that Loki gets for them is cursed, and that begins the story of the Nieblungen gold.
The other story is briefly told, since Vsp is pretty terse. It tells the story of the creation of the worlds, and the society of the gods,
Until three gods, strong and loving,
came from that company to the world;
they found on land Ash and Embla,
capable of little, lacking in fate.
Breath they had not, spirit they had not,
character nor vital spark nor fresh complexions;
breath gave Odin, spirit gave Haenir,
vital spark gave Lodur, and fresh complexions.[108]
(Vsp 17-8: Larrington)
There are still arguments over who Lodur is, although most people tend to assume he’s Loki, which would connect up to the Thiazi story. To make things worse, in another version of this myth, Odin and his two brothers Villi and Ve create the first humans. I suppose in both instances they involve gods who are very close to Odin, whether as family or by choice.
Volupsa goes on to tell us that after Odin and Loki have died at ragna rok, Hoenir appears along with two other gods afterwards:
Without sowing the fields will grow,
all ills will be healed, Baldr will come back;
Hod and Baldr, the gods of slaughter, will live happily together
in the sage’s palaces – do you understand yet, or what more?
The Haenir will choose wooden slips for prophecy,
and the sons of two brothers will inhabit, widely,
the windy world – do you understand yet, or what more?
Njord and Skadi Page 7
