Loki Variants

One of the trailers for the upcoming Marvel Loki series features the intriguing phrase, “Loki variant.” Of course, if there’s one variant, there will be others and I’m not just refering to the series. In fact, Loki “variants” already exist in Norse lore. As a shapeshifter, he (she/they/ze…) appears in the stories as a mare (soon to be pregnant), a salmon, a fly, and more.

Dagulf Loptson, author of Playing With Fire: An Exploration of Loki Laufeyjarson (Asphodel Press, 2014) and Loki: Trickster and Transformer (Pagan Portals, 2020), writes that Loki is also known by various “indirect bynames” for his various forms and functions (Playing, p.20). Here are just a few of these bynames, known as “heiti” or “kennings”:

• Lóðurr (Lodur, Lodurr): who in the poem, Völuspá, helps to animate two humans who were formerly ash and elm trees. Loptson says you’ll find this story in the 18th stanza of the poem (Playing, pp. 22-26). The association of this byname with Loki is still somewhat controversial.

• Vé: a word which means shrine. This name is often associated with a brother of Óðinn, or with Óðinn himself. We can remember that in Norse Lore, Loki is Óðinn’s blood brother (not his adopted son, as in the Marvel Universe). The association of this byname with Loki is also still somewhat controversial. (Playing, p.26-27).

• Loptr: an accepted byname for Loki which means “airy one or lofty one” (Playing, p. 27-29).

• Gammleið: “Vulture’s Path” which may also be a kenning for air (Playing, pp. 29-31). Loptson associates Loki with cremation fire and sees the vulture as “Loki’s bird” (p. 30). He gives compelling and scholarly reasons for these associations.

• Inn bundni áss: The bound God, which refers to Loki’s punishment for insulting the rest of the gods by telling the truth about them. (Playing, p. 31-32).

Many more names may be found in Playing with Fire (pp. 36-38), throughout Loki: Trickster and Transformer, and The Grumpy Lokean Elder’s blog. Stephan Grundy, Ph.D. also discusses these and other bynames and aspects of Loki in God in Flames, God in Fetters: Loki’s Role in the Northern Religions (Troth Publications, 2015).

In a recently published essay I write of my own “UPG” (unverified personal gnosis) that as a shapeshifter, Loki may have mystic lessons to teach us about cellular and genetic “shapeshifting” in our own bodies (longer, more youthful telemeres, please!). (“Loki-I’m Game!”, Blood Unbound-A Loki Devotional, edited by Bat Collazo, Troth Publications, 2021, pp. 141-142).

God Loki Variant and Satanized Loki Variant

Loki as a God

Was Loki worshipped in old Norse and Icelandic cultures? Many academics say no. However Stephan Grundy mentions Loki’s centrality in Eddic dramas and cites Dame Bertha Philpott’s theory that the Eddic dramas were actually scripts for religious rituals and mentions Terry Gunnell’s later investigations and conclusions regarding this theory, which is now generally accepted (God in Flames, pp. 32-34).

There’s a scene in Marvel’s Thor Ragnarok that might be a clever nod to this theory. In this scene Thor returns to Asgard only to find a huge golden statue of (the presumed dead) Loki erected in front of an “Asgardian Theater” and enters just in time for the conclusion of a dramatic re-enactment of Loki’s tragic demise. Loki himself, disguised as Odin, is enjoying the audience’s response. The scene suggests that Loki has lost no time in establishing a vehicle for his own worship.

Though we have very little evidence of Loki worship in older times, aside from the ritual drama theory, Loki worship is increasingly popular among Heathens and other modern neo-pagans.

Loki as the “Norse Satan”

The Icelandic writer, Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), author of the Prose Edda (a collection of traditional Norse poems and stories) and Heimskringla, is frequently cited as the person most to blame for turning Loki into the equivalent of “the Norse Satan” and for otherwise distorting the original Norse and Icelandic material with his Christian perspective. Unfortunately for Loki, Snorri’s slurs stuck fast.

In a further distortion, some American white supremacists not only view Loki as Satan, but also as Jewish, since his second name, Laufeyjarson, refers to his mother (Laufey, a goddess) instead of his father (Fárbauti, a jötunn). A patrynomic, like “Fárbautison,” would have been more usual in Norse culture. (So contrary to the Marvel Universe lore, Loki is not and never was an “Óðinnson.” However, he was and is Óðinn’s blood brother, as mentioned earlier.) What does this have to do with the white supremacist claim that Norse Loki is actually Jewish? Well, in the Judaic tradition, Jewish descent is matrilineal. Such claims about Loki probably predate Wagner’s Ring Cycle operas and Nazism, but Wagner and the Nazis certainly promoted this. (If you doubt this, just type “is Loki Jewish” into a search engine and see what nonsense appears.)

Artists also took up this notion. There was a period of time when Loki was depicted as looking middle-Eastern, clothed as middle-Eastern, or with a hooked nose (a stereotyped “Jewish” feature). Here are two examples from Wikimedia commons. At top: “Loki. An illustration from Fredrik Sander’s 1893 Swedish edition of the Poetic Edda.” Below: “An illustration of Loki with a fishnet, from an Icelandic 18th century manuscript.” FYI, I cringe every time big blond Marvel Thor describes his bro, Marvel Loki, as “greasy.” For shame, screenwriters!

Worshipping Loki as a Gender Fluid, Queer Diety

With regard to contemporary worship of Loki as a god, Lokeans and others who hail and appreciate him, often view him as a queer god and a god of outsiders and oppressed people. Collective Lokean gnosis would easily accept Loki as being supportive of anyone who is oppressed due to religion, gender, and/or ethnicity (and so on). Based on community gnosis, Loki is not likely to be sympathetic to any oppressive cause. In fact, even the Marvel Loki “variant” is widely perceived as a deity who celebrates Pride (art by D.Kettchen on Deviant Art).

Dagulf Loptson has created and shared many Loki rituals with the community of those who honor Loki. Here’s one example, a Lokean Washing Charm. Holidays adopted by Lokeans include April 1st, Lokabrenna (the rising of Sirius in late July/August), Loki Spongecake Day on Sept. 4th, and Dec. 13th as his “birthday.”

Once the new Marvel Loki series appears on Disney, I predict that membership in the various Loki-related social media groups will more than double. For example, Loki’s Wyrdlings on Facebook has experienced enormous growth just since 2018.

Loki’s Pop Culture Variants

As I’ve said before, Loki Laufeyjarson is the consummate muse. He has long been a favorite of artists, storytellers, novelists, fan fiction writers, and screenwriters. And there are numerous ways of portraying him. Below is a screenshot summarizing his appearance in Marvel Comics, which of course resulted in his inclusion in Marvel action movies.

However, the Marvel Universe can’t claim the only recent portrayal of Loki. Spoiler alert: The Norwegian series, Ragnarok, cast Jonas Strand Gravli in the character of Laurits Seier, a teenager just learning of his true identity as Loki, a non-human jötunn (below). Jonas Gravli does an amazing job in this series.

(Photo source: https://www.filmstarts.de/nachrichten/18536004.html).

Cosplayers also perform Loki with zest. My favorite is Casey Triere who is also voice actor and a brilliant artist. Here is one of Casey’s “Norse of Co urse” TikTok videos. Here is one of her portraits of Loki, used with her permission.

As you can see, there are so many “variants” of Loki to enjoy. Here is an introduction to my own variant, Loki as “Lucky LaFey,” a “handsome drifter” who is actually in search of his missing son, Váli, turned into a wolf by Odin. Loki himself is a fervent muse for this character who appears in two of my four Guild of Ornamental Hermits books, soon to be published online by Futures Past Editions.

Many of these variants are “brilliant, bright-eyed, too beautiful to resist” according to the poet, Elizabeth Vongvisith, author of Trickster, My Beloved: Poems for Laufey’s Son.

Once you learn more about the many faces and aspects of Loki Laufeyjarson, you too might also find him irresistable. And that’s not a bad thing.

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Day 19: How Do I Love Thee, Loki?

Today Mercury goes retro in my Ninth House of writing and publishing (waaaah!) and the Moon is in Pisces, in a transit that also opposes my Venus, according to today’s Astrodient prediction. This transit is termed “indiscriminate affection” and is described thusly:

“This influence can lead to rather indiscriminate affection, because your desire to love someone overrules your normal sense of discretion. This is not especially dangerous, although a certain amount of discretion is still desirable.”

In other words, it’s a PERFECT day to blog without restraint (or discretion) on today’s topic: “what quality or qualities of this god do you most admire? What quality or qualities of them do you find the most troubling?”

Caution: This transit also pertains to “Erotic desires. Are you feeling emotional at the moment but don’t know what to do about it?” (Well, I wasn’t until I read this and started thinking about it…)

Loki Laufeyjarson! The qualities I admire? For simplicity’s sake, I’ll use “he/his” as I generally do experience him in that gendered way. However, I’m just now coming to connect with other gendered aspects, which is great. I am sure it is my programming that has limited me up to now.

Let’s take a personal gnosis plunge. Ready?

First of all–I like that Loki’s here, here with me for the long haul (which, seeing as I’m about to reach medicare age, isn’t all that long…). That doesn’t mean I always feel him hanging about or being all bad boy and tricksy as some people report (and that’s fine, by the way–I kind of envy those folks), but that I know he has my back.

I admire Loki for his willingness to “speak truth to power.” For his intelligence and insightful ability to dismantle hypocrisy. For his unholy glee and madcap humor (yes, I do get to experience the light side now and then). For his intrinsic creative force and ability to spark it in mere humans. For his honor and resolve, no matter how weird his wyrd. For the kindness and tenderness he can sometimes show to his families, as a parent and as a lover. For his beguiling appetites for… whatever! For being “close up and personal.” In short, for being a complex subtle being who isn’t afraid to mix it up a little with troubled humanity here in Midgard.

I admire Loki’s hidden agenda. I don’t know what it is, but I sense it as part of his function as a catalyst of creative chaos and transformation. He’s not raw chaos (usually), he’s strategic, even when looking as if he’s got no impulse control whatsover.

I love his complexity. I love being challenged by Loki, learning from him.

I admire his shape and gender-shifting versatility. His curiosity. His restlessness.

Loki is a good listener as well as a master of direct communication (including barbed witticisms). I admire that too. And if he’s displeased, it’s a clear “no, don’t do that” or “no, I don’t want that.” He’s never passive-aggressive. He asks pointed questions to trigger learning rather than ‘splaining, as I mentioned above.

I admire Loki’s generosity. I benefit from it. He makes his “template of transformation” available. You have only to ask, then to work hard to understand and absorb it.

I admire Loki’s ability to be accepting of all kinds of people while at the same time being perfectly willing to offer a deft kick to the patoosis, as needed.

I trust him in all ways, but not like a fool. He likes me to keep my mind sharp and my eyes open.

And I adore feeling his energy when he’s “around.” I love his readiness to be delighted.

Sometimes I consider the above with a trace of wistfulness. Loki has inadvertantly spoiled me for other manifestations of masculinity (not that Loki’s always “masculine”). He never “mansplains” or “godsplains.” I wish I could meet a human love with even a 100th portion of Loki’s qualities. It would be nice to grow old(er) with one or two such people, especially if they also shared my faith. That’s one of the problems with spending too much time with the divine. You get used to a certain expansiveness and depth. It makes you “nice” in the old sense of the word–particular, choosy.

Qualities I don’t admire? There really aren’t many. At one point I was troubled by slut shaming in the Lokasenna. And I get the sense that Loki can be malicious at times, but only when really pushed, and even then, not for very long. Based on what I know of the lore (and I am still learning), he is far less cruel to others than others have been to him.

As for Loki’s involvment in “the Death of Baldr,” I don’t trust Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda version of Baldr’s death. It’s not the only one. In older versions, Loki is not involved at all, or if he is, he’s most likely acting on behalf of Baldr’s father (Odin) in a sacred rite that ensures Baldr’s return after Ragnarok. I also don’t trust Snorri’s front- and back-end prose additions to Lokasenna (which is an anonymous human composition). They are too pat.

Loki is above all a keeper of certain mysteries. He’s a guardian at the threshold, a deity of all kinds of crossroads. Human lore and literature, whether ancient or modern, is a reflection of human attempts to explain or chronicle the bits of cosmic mysteries we are able to perceive, all based ultimately on someone’s personal gnosis. I feel Snorri had an literary agenda that overrode any sense he may have had of touching on “mysteries.” He was not a mystic, nor did he have a mystic’s intuition.

As for Ragnarok, meh. What we humans are doing to our planet and its climate is more real, devastating, and disturbing than any mythic account of the world’s end. For all I know, we ARE in Ragnarok right now, and from where I sit, I don’t see Loki as an agent of this destruction. In fact, I think he’d rather we wised up and did something about it while we still can. This wasn’t what he wanted for the descendants of Ask and Embla. Or for cats and wolves either.

Hail Loki! With all my love, respect, and trust.

Ragnarök and Lava Flows

Earlier today, Sunday, I spent time in an online group with a number of people arguing that Loki shouldn’t be hailed because…Ragnarök: “Twilight of the Gods,” Loki riding in on a ship made of “dead men’s nails,” and all the rest of that “evil” stuff. Sigh…

Pele_by_David_Howard_Hitchcock,_c._1929 — Pele, by David Howard Hitchcock, c. 1929. Public domain.

And in the course of these discussions I began to mention my previous association with another “difficult” deity, namely Tutu Pele, the volcanic goddess of Hawai’i. And how people in Pele’s country, Hawai’i Island (aka “Big Island”), show her much respect and love. Even many people who are otherwise Christianized will acknowledge Pele. Especially in Lava Zones 1 and 2 in the Puna district, many people will clean their homes and make them beautiful for her, as an honored guest, if she is on the move.

I moved away from the Puna district in September 2017. Just a few months later, on May 3rd, 2018, the Leilani Estates (about eight miles from my former house) erupted into a massive, months long series of earthquakes, fissures, eruptions, and huge, swift rivers of lava. Halema’uma’u, Pele’s home at Kilauea Caldera in Volcanoes National Park was practically emptied of lava. It all spilled out over miles of Puna and flowed into the sea.

[60] Pele dwells in the chaos,

Resounding down below in the pit,

Kilauea is overturned, adrift like a canoe.

Puna is branded, burned, the sand blazing hot.

Puna is destroyed, destroyed by fire.

[65] Charred by the fires of the woman.

Puna is blighted, burned by fires.

The Epic Tale of Hi’iakaikapoliopele, Woman of the Sunrise, Lightening-skirted Beauty of Halema’uma’u. As told to Ho’oulumahiehie. Translated by M. Puakea Nogelmeier. Awaiaulu Press, 2006. p. 346

One of my friends had actually lived on the property that later turned into the most active fissure (fissure 8), spilling millions of tons of lava over several months. As the lava flow continued it took out Green Lake (known as the Wai O Pele, her bath, one of only two fresh water lakes on the island), the vacation neighborhood of Kapoho, the Wai’opae tidepools, the Ahalanui warm pond, the Hawaiian language charter school, and hundreds of homes and acres of forest preserve. One man lost half his leg to a lava bomb! Others lost…everything. And with all this, people pulled together in amazing ways, even when they were homeless and governmental response was clearly inadequate.

And still they love Pele!

I can’t help but contrast this kind of spirit and courage of people who live so close to spontaneous destruction on a daily basis with people who are too timid to even be in the same room with people who hail Loki. The timid ones speak of Loki’s supposed role in Ragnarök as the major reason why.

Ragnarök as a Tale of Volcanic Eruptions

Here is a chronology of volcanic eruptions in Iceland, starting from 870. I’ve been looking for a similar chronology for Norwegian volcanoes. (The last Norwegian eruption was 2014.) The noted scholar, Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson (1914-2006), linked the story of Ragnarök with volcanic activity. Another important scholar, Dame Bertha Surtees Phillpotts (1877–1932), proposed a theory that Surtr was a volcano demon, inspired by Icelandic volcanoes. Some Icelandic place names seem to confirm this.

Obviously Davidson and Phillpotts weren’t just scholars, they had heaps of common sense. They understood the relationships of landscapes and natural processes to the stories told by human beings. I think their theories sound very plausible. I’m going to enjoy learning more about them.

My Lee M. Hollander (1962) translation of The Poetic Edda says that the collected poems were compiled around the beginning of the 12th century but were probably written across a span of four centuries. He also says that the poems seem to have orginated in several countries–possibly most came from Norway and only one was confirmed for Iceland. Now this is an old book I’ve got here and scholarship must have advanced, but since this is not a blog on Norse lore (which I am not qualified to write anyway) I am going to ask readers to play nice if they make corrections in the comments section. I am hoping to get a copy of Jackson Crawford’s translation soon. Thank you.

So let’s just note the twenty-two or so volcanic eruptions in Iceland from 870 til 1188, just before the beginning of the 12th century. These eruptions, or news of them, may have had an impact on several countries in the old Norse world, particularly if they affected climate and crops. They are dramatic so some poets may have been tempted to reference them.

Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) wrote the Prose Edda in Iceland around the year 1220. There were twelve volcanic eruptions in Iceland during his lifetime, including one at Katla the year he was born.

Looks like this evening’s UPG is possibly verified by geologic and scholastic sources. But my main interest in this blog post is in comparing cultural/community reactions to Pele and Loki.

Destruction, Renewal: Norse Style, Hawaiian Style

Volcanoes are impressive natural events and it’s not hard to imagine that they would make an impression on any writer’s mind. They are very much like the end of the world. There are earthquakes, spewing fountains of lava and lava flows, poisonous gases…not to mentioned a sun which seems to go dark and other disruptive weather patterns which might cause crop failures and starvation. When I hear the phrase “ship made of dead men’s nails,” I have to admit I think of obsidian shards raining down from a volcanic eruption.

And in the poems and the prose, Loki is linked with some of this phenomena. Bound in a cave at the end of the Lokasenna he shudders from dripping snake poison and makes earthquakes (linked to volcanic activity). He is linked with fire and lightening. He’s said to be the avenging force behind Ragnarök, a battle of the gods and the end of life as we know it (temporarily, anyway). Fortunately there is a renewal of life afterwards. The seeress exclaims, “I see green again—–with growing things” (Hollander, p. 12).

It’s interesting to note that one of the most important tales in Hawaiian literature involves Pele and her youngest sister, Hi’iakaikapoliopele (“Hi’iaka in the bosom of Pele”) (see the quoted poem above). It’s an enormous saga, a world class epic, and at the end there is also a fierce battle between the two sisters, partially because Pele has killed Hi’iaka’s same sex lover, Hopo’e, for no good reason. Their battle devastates the land with flowing lava, burning forests, etc. Finally other gods and goddesses step in and tell them to quit it. And at that point Hi’iakaikapoliopele becomes a goddess in her own right, bringing vegetation and new life to the lava flows of her eldest sister. Destruction, renewal; the cycle of life we endure and sometimes celebrate as human beings.

(You can watch a stunning dance performance of this story, Holo Mai Pele, here. The hula teachers for this performance are direct descendents of Pele, who is an ancestral goddess as well the volcano goddess. Production by Halau O Kekuhi.)

As you can see, Hawaiians embrace this story and love both goddesses in spite of their flaws, including Pele’s potential to create real-life catastrophes! This is pretty interesting to me when I compare this with fearful attitudes toward Loki among American neopagans who worship Norse gods. Meanwhile, back in the countries with volcanic histories that may have inspired the story of Ragnarök, I hear the people there are mostly chill when it comes hailing Loki. Are we weird here in the U.S. or what?

So I do think it’s regrettable that unlike Pele in Hawai’i, Loki–also connected with natural forces and cycles–gets little respect or celebration except from those who are particularly devoted to him (or who at least hail him from time to time). I find myself wishing that people who worship Norse gods would have a little more aloha for Loki, which is a value somewhat comparable (though not equivalent) with frith.

We cannot escape the natural forces that rend and rule our planet. Those who are theists (of any kind) might also argue that we cannot escape our deities. I look out every morning at Mt. Konocti, a high threat volcano just a few miles on the other side of Clear Lake in California. Sometime in the distant past a whole side of one of Konocti’s peaks slid into the lake, creating a giant concave scoop and probably triggering earthquakes and a flood. Every day I bless and thank that mountain. Why not? What else am I to do?

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