Loki
;)
sometimes Lopt, was the Germanic fire god and son of the giants Farbauti and Laufey. He was a mischief-maker, trickster and shape-changer, and grew progressively more evil until eventually the gods bound him in a cave until the coming of Ragnarok, the end of the world. Boredom was a problem for Loki, who 'was tired of the string of days that unwound without a knot or a twist in them'.
The fact that his parents were giants may help to explain his tendency towards evil deeds. He simply could not help playing tricks and exposing the gods to danger, although it was often his quick-wittedness that afterwards saved them. Loki, for instance, brought about the loss and return of Idun and her apples of youth. Without these magic fruit, the gods were subject to the ravages of time like everyone else. On occasion Loki was even prepared to risk serious harm to his companion Thor, the thunder god. When Loki led Thor unarmed to the hall of the frost giant Geirrod, only the loan of weapons from the kindly frost giantess Grid saved the thunder god. Loki tricked his friend because the price of his own release by Geirrod had been delivery of the thunder god into his power.
Yet it was Loki who devised the novel scheme to get back Thor's magic hammer after it was stolen by dwarfs and passed into the hands of the frost giant Thrym. The price for the hammer's return, Loki discovered, was the hand of Freyja, the fertility goddess. He therefore persuaded Thor to go to Thrym dressed in Freyja's clothes. When Thrym took out the magic hammer, Thor seized it and laid low all the frost giants present.
Loki was married twice, first to the giant Angrboda and then to Sigyn, with whom he had two sons, Vali and Narvi. His monstrous children by Angrboda were Fenrir, Jormungand and Hel, ruler of the underworld: all fearsome representatives of the evil side of his nature Even after he brought about the death of Odin's son Balder, the gods continued to tolerate his presence in Asgard. But when he arrived at Aegir's feast and began to torment everybody present with insults and sneers, their patience came to an end.
To escape their wrath Loki changed himself into a salmon. From his high seat in Asgard, however, Odin located the fish and mounted an expedition to catch it. Loki was then placed in a dark cave. His son Vali was changed into a wolf, who immediately attacked his brother Narvi and killed him. Narvi's intestines were then used to bind Loki beneath the dripping mouth of a venomous snake. In this dreadful prison, the god awaited Ragnarok. Then he was to emerge to lead the army of evil in their final battle with the gods, when Loki would meet his own end at the hands of Heimdall.