Musings on Loki, Baldr, and Modern Perceptions of Norse Mythology

Hey guys, did you know that what I actually studied in school was basically Vikings?

My major was in archaeology, yes, and my minor in early medieval history, but all of the research I did, all my papers and projects (with a few exceptions that I very begrudgingly trudged through for the sake of my professors' respects), were focused on Old Norse culture and mythology. ('Viking' is technically a misnomer for the culture but I'm using it here for the sake of recognisability.) Even outside of school, I lived for this stuff. I read up on Norse mythology. I taught myself how to read three separate runic alphabets. I re-enacted as a Viking. For over five years I lived and breathed Vikings. And while I don't get the chance to show off this knowledge much when at the Grange, I do still love it all.

Hey guys, did you know that there's currently a series of very popular movies with a rather interesting take on Norse mythology?

In case you didn't realise what I was talking about.

Now, unlike certain friends of mine, I actually have no problem with how the "Thor" movies loosely interpret Norse mythology. It's a superhero franchise, it's as deep as a wading pool. No one is realistically gonna come away from these movies thinking that the Vikings believed in the Incredible Hulk.

But the trailer for "Thor: Ragnarok" has me thinking lately about how we now portray a very particular god from Norse mythology in our modern pop culture. No, not Thor. This guy:

No, wait. That's not right. This guy:

NO GODS DAMN IT THAT'S NOT RIGHT EITHER.

This guy:

This post is about the mythological Loki. Not Tom Hiddleston, not Alan Cumming in "Son of the Mask", but the Loki of Norse mythology, the Loki the Vikings would recognise. More specifically, this post is my own personal meditation upon the myth of Loki and Baldr.


For those who don't have any idea what the hell I'm talking about, the version of this myth that most people with a passing knowledge of Norse mythology - the version that gets into pop culture such as Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology book - is that Loki killed Odin's son Baldr by guiding the hand of the blind god - and Baldr's brother - Hödr into throwing a mistletoe dart (Baldr's mom Frigga had made every plant swear not to harm Baldr except for the mistletoe) into Baldr's heart.

Loki then taunted the gods in the Lokasenna, airing their flaws out like dirty laundry, though it's worth noting that in the Lokasenna none of the gods deny Loki's accusations. Actually, a good deal of the Lokasenna's conversations read somewhat like "You're a dirty skank." "Yeah? So are you." It's like the awkward thanksgiving dinner of the Norse gods, honestly.

In retaliation, Odin had Loki's young sons Narvi and Vali killed by turning Vali into a wolf and forcing him to tear Narvi to pieces, an "eye for an eye" so to speak. (There are some versions where wolf!Vali is then shot, and some where he gets away, but either way, Loki loses his kids.) This, of course, does fit with archaeological and historical evidence that we have of blood feuds within Old Norse society. I.e., if someone killed a member of your family, you were justified in killing a member of theirs in retaliation.

Loki was bound with his sons' entrails beneath a venomous serpent. His wife Sigyn, ever loyal, chose to stay with her husband rather than return to Asgard with her sons' killers, and did her best to catch the serpents' venom in a bowl and keep it from her husband's face, though occasionally she would have to go and empty the bowl. They were to be stuck there until Ragnarok.

Now with the exception of the whole Ragnarok thing (which to me just reeks of Christianity hiding under an Old Norse mask to justify its takeover of Viking lands - more on that later), I can see why this version of the myth gained traction. It is compelling. It's the version that I went with in my own recent fiction involving Loki as a protagonist, though I did go with my friend Thenea's interpretation that the drama in the Lokasenna was an (ill-fated) attempt by Loki to instigate a much-needed change (befitting his role as trickster) in a group too set in their old ways to survive the threat of a new religion with newfangled ideas.

But this is only one version of the myth. Loki as a tragic antihero makes for compelling fiction, but there are versions where Loki isn't present at Baldr's death at all. In the Gesta Danorum, for example, Baldr and Hödr are rival suitors for the hand of Nanna - who in this version is a human, not a goddess (I believe in this version Hödr is a human, too) - and Hödr kills Baldr over this rivalry. Loki and Odin have nothing to do with it whatsoever.

The version where it is Loki's fault is the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson, a Christian man with a clear Christian bias who had reason to portray Odin as a metaphor for the Christian God, Loki as a metaphor for Satan, Baldr as a metaphor for Jesus, and Ragnarok as a metaphor for the Book of Revelation. Though it's been a while since I read it, if I remember right, in Snorri's version Baldr is even supposed to be resurrected after Ragnarok.

He is risen indeed

Of course, if the Loki-killing-Baldr version of the myth of Baldr's death does have pre-Christian roots before Snorri, then perhaps Baldr's death and descent to the underworld could have originally been seasonal rather than permanent. If that were once the case, it would have clear parallels to myths of other cultures, such as that of Aphrodite and Adonis, or of Persephone, or of Inanna and Dumuzi. If Baldr was once a solar or fertility deity, then an older version of the myth very well could have had him going underground for the winter, especially as in some parts of northern Scandinavia the sun doesn't rise for large sections of winter. Loki killing him every year would fit his role as trickster, bringing the necessity of death to facilitate the continuance of life.

Myths change over time and place. Even within Norse mythology, there was likely never one set-in-stone (runestones notwithstanding) version of the myths or of the gods themselves. At the height of the Viking Age, Norsemen had gotten from Canada to Constantinople - with Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, France, Russia, Italy, and Northern Africa in between. It's highly likely that - with myths being passed down orally - variations arose over those thousands of miles over the hundreds of years that the Norse were still largely Pagan. Regional versions were probably even influenced with the folklore of these respective regions. Most of these versions of the myths have sadly been lost to time (at least until time travel is invented), but it's important to keep in mind that Snorri's version of this particular myth is just one version, no more or less true than any other.

Which is why I take such umbrage with pop culture's continued view of Loki as Norse Satan when other trickster figures (i.e. Coyote, Hermes, Anansi, and now Maui as of Disney's "Moana") get to be portrayed as relatively benign; and why in my own personal writings I prefer to portray Loki as a hero even in the killing of Baldr. Because as I said, Loki as a protagonist grieving for the loss of his innocent young sons makes for compelling fiction - who's to say my version is any more or less true than Snorri's?

Pictured: a compelling protagonist

In my version, Baldr approached Loki and asked him, the trickster who would surely know how, to find a way that Baldr could die. In my version, Baldr found his parents far too overprotective of him, and he'd fallen in love with Hel - an outcast who his parents would never approve of. In my version, Loki saw this as a way to start to make up for how he'd treated Angrboda and Hel in the past, which was something he regretted in the confines of the fictional narrative I'd set up. In my version, Baldr's engagement to Nanna was arranged, and he wanted to make his own choice, not that of his parents. He wanted to be with Hel, even if in the realm of the dead. (A bit like a genderflipped Persephone, there.)

But he and Loki both needed this to be a secret. Thus, when confronted, the whole Lokasenna happens rather than Loki just explaining. After all, in the words of another trickster, Mary Poppins, "I never explain anything!"

This was the version I wrote last fall. Keep in mind it's not meant to be 100% historically accurate; it's meant to work within a fictional novel:

The stories said Odin and Frigga’s golden-haired son Baldr was beloved by all living things. When he was born, Frigga had, in an effort to protect her most beloved son, made every living thing in all the realms swear never to harm him. But she had forgotten to ask the tiny plant growing on the mighty oak tree. She had forgotten to ask the mistletoe.

Loki, jealous of all the attention Baldr got, and feeling that Frigga and Odin were a bit too overprotective of their son, had taken it upon himself to create a wand of mistletoe. When all the other gods threw things at Baldr in a good-natured game (Baldr couldn’t feel pain, so they all found this hilarious), he had guided the hand of the blind god Hodr - Baldr’s brother - and caused brother to slay brother when the mistletoe pierced Baldr’s heart.

Baldr died and went to Helheim. And for his transgressions, Loki was punished and banished.

That was what the stories said.

But history had been written by the victors, and the stories left out something very important.

A week before his death, Baldr had come to Loki’s home in disguise. Sigyn, Loki’s wife, had greeted him warmly and served him fresh baked bread and mead.

“You’re no shapeshifter, kid,” Loki was amused when the young god appeared in a dark cloak, “and the hood isn’t fooling anyone.”

The blonde lowered the hood off his flaxen curls, pouting just slightly. “My mother cannot know I’m here.”

“Do I look like I’m gonna go snitch to Frigga?”

“Snitches get stitches,” one of the twin boys sitting on the floor grinned. Narvi looked innocent enough just sitting there, but Loki knew his son was planning some sort of mischief. He looked more like his mother, but he took after his father. “Right, dad?”

“Hi, Baldr,” Narvi’s twin, the much quieter Vali, waved at Odin’s son shyly. “I wrote another poem, just like I told you I would last harvest. Wanna hear it?”

“Boys, go help your mother,” Loki instructed.

“What?” The twins protested. “No fair!”

“Life isn’t fair,” Loki chuckled as his sons slinked away. He adored those kids. But his chuckle faded as he turned back to Baldr. “What do you want, anyway?”

“I’ve fallen in love,” Baldr confessed.

The trickster raised an eyebrow. “No offense, but you’re not my type.”

“N-not with you ! With… the most incredibly unique girl I’ve ever met,” his face softened into a disgustingly lovesick smile. “She’s not like anyone in Asgard. She’s amazing .”

“Spare me the details,” Loki pretended to gag. “Word of advice, kid? Never fall in love with a mortal. They die far too quickly.”

“She isn’t a mortal! I didn’t mean she was Midgardian!”

“And what of that wife your parents picked, hm?” Though his face was impassive, secretly Loki was intrigued. Baldr, the golden boy of Asgard, was thinking for himself for once?

The aforementioned golden boy wilted. “Nanna would never understand. Neither would my parents. This girl is… an outcast. I need someone to help me get out so I can see her again!”

“So you came to me? Interesting . But are you sure you wish to shake things up now ?” Secretly, Loki hoped Baldr would say yes. “Belief in us is already waning, what with that whole ‘Christianity’ thing that’s taking Europe by storm.”

“That’s just a fad. It’ll be over in a century or two, you mark my words. Anyway, I wouldn’t have come to you, but you’re the only person with the means to help me! Well. You or Heimdall.”

Gold eyes rolled. “Heimdall is as likely to help rebel against Odin as Freyja is to take a vow of chastity.”

“That’s why I came to you! And you cannot tell anyone , Loki! I mean it!”

“What’s the lucky lady’s name, anyway?”

Baldr’s face did that goofy grinning thing again, his voice becoming rapturous on the single syllable:

“ Hel …”

Suddenly, Loki’s blood ran cold.

How could Baldr know of the daughter he had left behind? The product of a one-night stand before he had met his wife, the child he had abandoned? Loki had always regretted it, for Hel had grown up bitter and been cast out of Asgard, taking over the realm of the dead in retaliation.

Could this be a chance to make amends? To let his child know that even if she hated him now, he still loved her? That he had changed ?

Loki hoped so.

One week later, Baldr was dead. Hel sent message that she would return him if everyone in Asgard cried for him. Loki was the only one who didn’t. How could he take him away from his daughter? She deserved Baldr more than anyone in Asgard did.

When brought before a council of other gods to justify his actions, he refused to do so. Instead, he called them out on everything they had done wrong over the centuries. All the reasons Baldr might leave, all the reasons the people of Midgard had lost faith in them and begun to believe in a loving savior god instead, all their hypocrisies and intrigues and conniving bullshit .

Finally, Odin had refused to take one more second of his adoptive brother’s verbal barrage.

“ Enough! ” The one-eyed god roared. “Was taking away my only happiness not satisfying? You must add insult to injury?! Look at how Frigga sobs! How can you do this to her?!”

“How can I do this to her ?!” Loki challenged. “You abandoned Midgard in order to shield Baldr from reality like some maiden in a tower instead of the warrior he should have been! He could have been the savior of the world instead of whoever it is they’re worshipping in Iceland now! And you wonder why Midgard is losing belief in us!”

“And whose fault is it that we will never know what Baldr could have been? Fine! You have forced my hand, Loki. Let it be known that what is about to happen is your fault!”

“ My fault?! What the fuck are you talking about, you old bastard?!”

“Bring out the boys!” Odin commanded.

And suddenly, his sons, Narvi and Vali, stood before the council, Vali hiding slightly behind Narvi. Loki’s gold eyes widened.

“What is this? They have done nothing wrong!”

“You have robbed me of my happiness,” Odin answered, “so I will rob you of yours. An eye for an eye, so to speak.”

“ What?! ” The trickster attempted to dive at his sons, to save them, but he was suddenly restrained by none other than Heimdall. Of course. “Let go of me!”

“Dad!” Vali shrieked. “What’s happening?!”

“Get behind me, Vali,” Narvi instructed, “I’ll protect you!”

“I-” Vali said, “I f-feel… weird ...”

In one last, desperate attempt to save them, Loki looked wildly up at the other gods. “How can you condone this?! They’re kids !”

Vali’s arms started to sprout black fur.

“Freyja, I know we were friends once! You told me you loved kids! How can you allow this?!” He demanded.

But Freyja turned away, still stung by what Loki had accused her of. Vali’s limbs began to lengthen unnaturally, his back hunching over as his face stretched and distorted itself, all the bones in his body cracking audibly and reforming himself into this monstrous new form.

“Skadi?!” Loki tried to reach the others, thrashing against Heimdall’s hold. “Bragi?! Njörd?!”

One by one, they turned their heads.

Vali was now a black wolf pawing at the dirt. Narvi’s eyes went wide as he tried to run, but he didn’t have a chance. The wolf, all memories of who he once was leaving his head, pounced on him, his jaws closing powerfully over his brother’s neck.

Narvi screamed once before the wolf ripped his throat away, an arc of blood spurting from the wound. Then, it was Loki who was screaming.

“ Narvi !” He yelled, even as he watched the life leave his son’s eyes. “V-Vali, listen to me! If you’re still in there, please, listen to me! This isn’t you ! You’re a poet! You hate violence! Vali, please...”

The wolf took one more bite of Narvi’s neck, tearing the flesh and shaking his head back and forth to remove it from the body. Then, he leaped towards his former father, clearly aiming at his throat, too.

In that moment, Loki would have welcomed it. Death was preferable to the sight of Narvi’s corpse lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Narvi, his little comedian, had been innocent...

Someone fired an arrow, piercing the Vali-wolf’s heart the same way the mistletoe had pierced Baldr’s. Loki cried out once as his other son was felled. Three more arrows flew through the air, each hitting Vali until he, too, was dead.

Only then did Heimdall throw Loki to the ground, into the pooling blood.

“Loki Laufeysson,” Odin added insult to injury, “I banish you from Asgard. I condemn you to be bound for eternity. And I vow that you will never be happy again.”

Loki looked up at his former blood-brother, flames of hatred in his golden eyes. Before he could respond, he was dragged down to Midgard and bound to a rock with the entrails of his sons.

Sigyn chose to go with him. They didn’t bind her. That was a mistake.

She was eventually able to free her husband, but by then they were trapped on Earth, doomed to wander the European countryside until any lingering belief in them disappeared. Then, they would fade away.

Loki let his anger fester in the centuries that followed. And he, too, made a vow.

He would never forgive Odin for this.

Myths are fluid things, and the myths of many cultures have parallels within each other, and I like puzzling it out into something that makes sense for me. Were Loki and Odin both right in their actions? Was Baldr? Well, no, not completely - no one was. That's what makes it so compelling, far more compelling than Loki as just a villain, in my opinion. And maybe it doesn't make sense to you, but this makes sense for me.

This version of the myth is true for me.

-Nym