Loki in Norse Mythology: the Trickster God

Loki is the son of giants, but Odin took him as his blood-brother (Lokasenna) and he lives among the gods. He changes shape, and the Eddas use him to start almost every kind of trouble. He cut off Sif’s hair for a joke, and Thor made him get the dwarves to forge her a new head of gold hair, which is how the gods ended up with Mjolnir and other treasures. He turned himself into a mare to draw away a giant’s stallion and gave birth to Odin’s horse Sleipnir.

With the giantess Angrboða he fathered the wolf Fenrir, the World Serpent Jörmungandr and Hel, who rules the dead. He tricked the blind god Höðr into throwing the mistletoe that killed Baldr, the most loved of the gods. In Lokasenna he walks into Ægir’s feast and insults each god in turn.

For Baldr’s death the gods bound him in a cave with the entrails of his son, with a serpent dripping venom above his face. His wife Sigyn stays beside him and catches the venom in a bowl; when she turns to empty it, the drops reach him and his shaking is what causes earthquakes. At Ragnarök he breaks free and comes with the giants. He and Heimdall kill each other.

Sources: Poetic Edda (Lokasenna, Völuspá) and Snorri’s Prose Edda (Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál).