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A-gnosis — Loki
Published: 2013-12-07 02:27:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 3498; Favourites: 56; Downloads: 0
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The god Loki (or Loke as we say in Sweden) from Norse mythology. My drawing is very inspired by John Bauer's paintings of him: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lok… . I don't remember when I first saw them, but I do remember that I thought: "Yeah, that's what Loki looks like".
Loki was the son of a giant (or jotunn. We say giant in Swedish, but the word is a bit misleading since many of them are of the same size as the gods), but he once mixed blood with Odin and became his foster brother (Odin's father was also a giant, btw). His role in the Norse mythology has been debated a great deal by scholars, among other things how much he may have been influenced by the Christian Devil (since those who wrote down the Norse myths were Christians). He is a bit of a trickster, sometimes assisting the gods and sometimes causing problems for them. He is described as cunning, unreliable and disrespectful, but there are many times when the gods were benefited by his tricks. It was thanks to him that Thor got his hammer, for instance.
By the giantess Angrboða, he was the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard Serpent, but he is also said to have given birth to children himself. Once he became pregnant by eating a roasted woman's heart, but the most famous story is about how he turned himself into a mare, mated with the stallion Svaðilfari and later gave birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In the poem Lokasenna Odin also says that Loki once spent eight winters beneath the earth as a woman milking cows, and during that time bore children. But it's maybe just said as an insult.
In Ragnarök Loki will fight against the gods and be killed by the god Heimdall.
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Comments: 59
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This was a fascinating read. I have always been captivated by the similarities in ancient myths and religions. In cases where they didn't borrow from each other, it really makes you think that there is something universal in people which causes us to have these myths.
I've been making Greek Mythology illustrations this year, and so I was reading a lot on that. And now reading what you have here it's really fascinating how a lot of things seem so similar. The "giants" and "titans" in Greek Mythology are also the Gods and Immortals as such, and they also have all of these surreal stories on birth and murder and lust and greed.
And nice illustration by the way 
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Thank you!
I also find these things very fascinating. I think that the Norse mythology indeed was influenced by the Greco-Roman mythology in some ways. I've heard for instance that some scholars believe that the idea of three main Norns (beings who decide peoples' destiny) is a later influence from Greco-Roman mythology. But unfortunately I haven't read so much about it.
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My understanding is that the current, main theory is that the similarities are due to them all originating from roughly the same proto-religion, along with Vedic/Hindu, Celtic, Slavic and Romans. I could be misunderstanding something, of course, but I recall hearing that the Norns/Yggdrasil/Níðhöggr, and the Hesperides/golden apples/Ladon were both believed to have descended from the same story in that original mythology...
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Ah, yes, that sounds familiar... I wish I had some good books about the origins/influences on Norse mythology. I have mostly just read about the Greek mythology.
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Personally, I recommend Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. He basically took some of the more interesting and entertaining parts of the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, and rewrites them with more of a narrative structure to make it easier for a modern reader to understand.
Or you could just check out Overly Sarcastic Productions on Youtube. There's a pretty great summary of them if you're in more of a hurry, or looking for a somewhat more humorous take.
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Thanks for the recommendations!
I'm not so fond of Overly Sarcastic Productions, though. I've seen a couple of videos they did on Greek mythology and they had a tendency to present speculations as facts and even said some things that were wrong from what I have read. And the most annoying of all was that they didn't mentioned their sources, so I couldn't check where they had got their information from. But maybe the videos on Norse mythology are better...
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At first they kinda threw me off whenever the videos on myths were different from the versions I had read, but a few of the videos do make note that there are multiple versions of myth x, and they're just telling one version, so it got a bit easier for me. Can't say the same for everyone, so if it bothers you I can understand why.
In terms of sources, it's a bit easier for Norse than Greek, since almost everything we know from Norse mythology comes from the Prose Edda, or Poetic Edda. I know Gaiman's book makes specific note in the beginning that he's taking details from both.
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I think that what annoyed me the most was in their video about Dionysus. They said that the Orphic myth where Dionysus is born from Zeus and Persephone is older than the Homeric and Hesiodic version where he is a son of Zeus and Semele. According to the books I have read, it’s the opposite. They also said that the Orphic Dionysus with chthonic connections goes back to the Mycenaean Dionysus. His name has indeed been found on linear B tablets, but as far as I know, we don’t know anything about the nature of his cult or what kind of deity he was back then. So I'd really like to know where they had gotten that information from.
Oh, yes, the Norse mythology is a bit easier on that point. But it really is too bad. I wish we had more sources preserved, because some of the gods we don't get to know that much about.
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If I recall that video correctly, she says that there aren't really any details about what kind of god he was, and the chthonic connections were just speculation because of a belief that the Mycenaean gods tended to emphasis chthonic aspects much more than later versions in general. Now, I have no idea if that's correct, since I actually haven't read much about the older versions of the Greek myths, and I know very little about Mycenaean Greece at all.
Exactly! Even the Eddas were written pretty late in the game, so they could have some important differences compared to the older versions that were lost. I know a lot of scholars speculate that Balder in particular was changed a lot do to influence from Christianity.
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Loki, you sneaky, sneaky attractive bastard!
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i love loki!
first inmythos
secondly by comics and films
3rdly by druidic pagan and i have Feelings about him that are very personal
lovely
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Thank you! Loki definitely is one of the most interesting characters in Norse mythology.
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Yes, I thought it was quite fitting for Loki. ^^
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Really love your version of Loki. I mean, Tom Hiddleston's version of Loki is great, but still really love the more traditional interpretations, especially versions that show Loki with red hair. I've really been getting back into Norse myths lately and I hope you make more Norse myth art in future.
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Thank you very much!
The Greek mythology is my favorite, but I really like the Norse mythology too and Loki is without a doubt one of the most fascinating characters. I have this headcanon where Balder's death was Loki's revenge on Odin for taking his daughter Hel away from him (it says in the Prose Edda that when Odin found out about Loki's children with the giantess Angerboda, he sent the gods to bring them to him. He then threw Hel into Niflheim where she became the ruler of the dead). It would be fun to maybe make a comic about that in the future.
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Yeah, Loki really seems to get a raw deal in the Norse myths, even though he's actually been helpful, like the time he helped Thor get Mjolnir back from the giants. But the story of Balder's death is one that really sticks with me because, when I was about eight, I was Loki in a school play about that particular story. It always made me wonder just what drove Loki to be so angry as to cause someone's death. But, now, having read more of the myths, I can understand why he'd want some revenge.
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Oh, yay, your Loki! 
Bauer's painting is really cool, he almost looks alien in it. I'm a bit partial to Peter Madsen's version, myself.
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Thanks! I'm glad you like him.
Yeah, he was supposed to look mischievous rather than evil (that's one thing that I actually like about Peter Madsen's Loki, that he's more of a trickster than a bad guy. But when it comes to his appearance I imagine him more like the Bauer version. Handsome and a bit androgynous).
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I really liked Madsen's story about Balder's death and how Loki acted in it. It made sense to me. I agree with you on androgynous Loki though, since he's father or mother to a lot of things.
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That a MAn or a Woman? XD
Good drawing thou, I can see the mischief in his eyes.
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Thanks!
Yeah, he's probably planning something really mischievous.
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Indeed. That;s why I liked him, THAT and this one books depiction of him with bright, wild red hair.
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Great classic Loki! I especially like the way you've done his hair and ears, and those wonderfully eloquent eyebrows.
If you're up for a modern reinterpretation of Loki and the other Norse deities, you might check out C. Gockel's "I Bring the Fire," which is being published in sections on Kindle (four out, so far). I especially love her Loki, Hoenir and Mimir, and her take on Baldur is like nothing I've ever seen anywhere else.
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Thank you! 
I didn't know about those books. Sounds interesting...
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I always see the classic Loki as a redhead ('flame-haired,' and all that), though I also like the Marvel-ized dark-haired version so often seen lately.
The "I Bring the Fire" books -- which are really more like sections in one very long story -- are a wonderful modern-day fictional take on the Norse gods. Very often you can get the first book free on Kindle, if that's an incentive....
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I like this artists inspiration for Loki but hate how he makes Hollie into the most ugliest of hags but that was the Ashier's opinion of her.
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Do you mean Loki's daughter Hel? She was almost always depicted as ugly.
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Beautiful picture. Loki is also devoted to his children and I believe his wives both Angrboda and Siff. In my biography of his daugter his intelligence, charm, curiousity, and desire for adventure are what ultimately bring him to grief. Odin desires him as a brother and friend so much that he has to have him all the time in Ashnier. To placate his people he dissolves and imprisons his family without his knowledge and marries him off to Siff who is a friend and admirer of his. After several years Loki finds out what really happened and that is when he becomes the trickster and increasingly cruel person to the Ashier ending with the death of Balder and his punishment.
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Thank you! I've wondered what Loki really thought about the gods' treatment of his three children with Angrboda (not to mention how they treated his sons with Sigyn after Baldr's death). If he cared about them he must have been very sad and angered, and it's easy to imagine that he would have wanted to punish the gods for it.
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Yay! You finally drew him! I would love to see a comic of him and Hermes meeting up and causing mischief together.
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Hehe. I imagine that Loki and Hermes would have a great time together. And probably end up in bed.
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Well, he dos look mischievous and tricky, and maybe he's saving all of his fire for Ragnarok. I like him!
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Yes, maybe so. I'm glad you like him.
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Nice interpretation and design! I like the way he seems so innocent, but at the bottom line, he's a trickster and a prick.
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Thanks! Yeah, he looks kind of innocent, but he really isn't.
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I am familiar with Bauer, especially his trolls and elves. My family went to Stockholm one summer and purchased a painting of his. Well, a copy, I suppose. It was one with a little boy and this giant troll in the background carrying a sack.
His work is what ignited my love of mythology and folklore.
This Loki looks mischievous, but rather nice. Early in the prankster career maybe?
Although I can just imagine him making this face after the whole Hodur incident. Oops.
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Ah, I know which painting you mean! It's probably one of Bauer's most well-known paintings. His trolls are a lot more well-known than his works on Norse mythology (at least it took me a longer time to discover the latter). I had a book of fairy tales illustrated by him when I was a kid and I remember that I was quite inspired by his paintings.
Yes, maybe this is early in his prankster career. I've always preferred the stories where Loki is more of a trickster rather than an evil figure.
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YAY Loki. ^_^ Alway love to see a pic of him, and not marvel version.
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Thanks! Yeah, the marvel version has taken over quite a lot lately (I don't really mind that marvel has borrowed the Norse gods, but I do get irritated when people believe that Marvel's version of the Norse mythology is the correct one).
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