Classic Illustrations from Norse Mythology

Themes in Old Norse Mythological Art
LOKI LAUFEY'S SON
AND HIS OFFSPRING

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See Also: The Capture and Binding of Loki

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Snorri's Edda, Gylfaginning:

33. "Also numbered among the Æsir is he whom some call the mischief-monger of the Æsir, and the first father of falsehoods, and blemish of all gods and men: he is named Loki or Loptr, son of Fárbauti the giant; his mother was Laufey or Nál; his brothers are Býleistr and Helblindi. Loki is beautiful and comely to look upon, evil in spirit., very fickle in habit. He surpassed other men in that wisdom which is called 'sleight,' and had artifices for all occasions; he would ever bring the Æsir into great hardships, and then get them out with crafty counsel. His wife was called Sigyn, their son Nari or Narfi."

Loki Laufeysson
1680 Edda Oblongata

Loki
1760 Edda

Loki
1820 H. E. Freund

Loki Leads the Giants
The Ragnarök Frieze
1921 H.E. Freund

Gylfaginning 34: Yet more children had Loki. Angrboda was the name of a certain giantess in Jötunheim, with whom Loki gat three children: one was Fenris-Wolf, the second Jörmungandr--that is the Midgard Serpent,--the third is Hel. But when the gods learned that this kindred was nourished in Jötunheim, and when the gods perceived by prophecy that from this kindred great misfortune should befall them; and since it seemed to all that there was great prospect of ill--(first from the mother's blood, and yet worse from the father's)-then Allfather sent gods thither to take the children and bring them to him. When they came to him, straightway he cast the serpent into the deep sea, where he lies about all the land; and this serpent grew so greatly that he lies in the midst of the ocean encompassing all the land, and bites upon his own tail. Hel he cast into Niflheim, and gave to her power over nine worlds, to apportion all abodes among those that were sent to her: that is, men dead of sickness or of old age. ... The Wolf the Æsir brought up at home, and Týr alone dared go to him to give him meat."

Loki and the Young Fenrir
1845 Th. Lundbye

Hel and Loki
1852 Robert Müller
The Neues Museum, Berlin

Loki at Ægirs Gæstebud
1857 Constantin Hansen

1858 Constantin Hansen

Logi
1876 Carl Emil Doepler, Jr.

Loki and his Children
1881 Carl Emil Doepler, Sr.

Loki's Children/ Loki and Angrboda
1885 Lorenz Frølich

Loki (leaning on tree) with Bragi and Heimdall
pleading with Idunn
1885 Lorenz Frølich

Loki's Binding with the Entrails of his Sons
1885 Lorenz Frølich

Loke, Sigyn and Hel
1885 Artist Unknown

Loke
1893 Frederic Sander

Loki's Offspring
1905 Carl Emil Doepler, Jr.

1908 V.A
Author: Kata Dahlström

Loki's Pets
1909 Maria Klugh

Loki Turns into a Mare
1909 Maria Klugh

Loki's Escape
1909 John P. Edmison

The Poetic Edda, Hyndluljóð 38:

Ól ulf Loki
við Angrboðu,
en Sleipni gat
við Svaðilfara;
eitt þótti skass
allra feiknast,
þat var bróður
frá Býleists komit.

Loki át hjarta
lindi brenndu,
fann hann halfsviðinn
hugstein konu;

Loki begat the wolf

with Angrboda,
but Sleipnir he begat

with Svadilfari:

one monster seemed
of all most deadly,
which from Byleist's
brother sprang.

Loki ate the heart
a little burnt,
he found half-scorched
the woman's life-stone.

1911 John Bauer

Loki
1911 Arthur Rackham