One question I get a lot is “Why Loki?” It’s usually said with serious implied disgust and disbelief, and it’s incredibly exasperating. How am I supposed to answer that? How long do you have, bud?

I’m going to preface this by saying yes, yes I am putting a modern interpretation on the myths. I am not a free woman in Scandinavia 1200 years ago. I am a white American woman passing cishet in the Deep South in 2026. I do agree you have to look at the culture of the time with what things mean in the story, but from that point forward I not only do not have to maintain Viking Age interpretations, as a modern Heathen I am obligated to translate the principles there to my life here in the subtropical United States. That means a lot of changes. And yes, I am going to look at the stories from the context of the period, but with a modern perspective. A religion frozen in crystal is a religion that’s dead.

Before I get into the mythology, I want to talk briefly about mythic literalism. This is the practice of taking the myths literally, as if the stories actually happened somewhere, in some mythic time. The thing is, they did not. Whether myths started as mythemes that came together in certain ways or if the story came from a single source, if we have it, that means some human (or protohuman, for those that go back far enough) thought at least part of it up somewhere. These are not revealed stories from some divine source, and if they are we have a term for that: UPG. Also, if they are, it happened so long ago that there’s been a millenia long game of telephone going, we don’t know what the stories originally were. This isn’t history. Some of the stories might have started out that way, but they aren’t anymore, at least not like we think of the term these days. There is nothing factual here. The stories are true in that they describe peoples’ experiences of these divine beings well enough that they were passed down. Taking them literally leads to thinking the world is 6,000 years old. Given that, let’s look at the stories.

A good bit of Loki's misadventures come from his pride. The Iðunn story and the Geirroð story are both examples of this. He got full of himself in both cases, and did something that got him in trouble. In the case of Iðunn's story, he got angry at an eagle who, from his perspective, stole his food, and from his belligerent reaction he was caught in Jötunn magic (the eagle was Thjazi in disguise). Loki hit Thjazi with a stick, and the stick stuck, leaving Loki unable to let go of said stick, as the eagle took flight. Now Loki was being dragged over terrain. I've been dragged before, it's a terrifying and painful experience. Is it any wonder he finally gave in to Thjazi's demands? In the case of the Geirroð story, he was arrogant in believing that he couldn't be caught in bird form, and taunted the Jötnar. As a result, he was trapped and starved for months. For a deity who prided himself on how quickly he could eat (see the Útgarð Loki story), this is a pretty dire circumstance. Hunger is its own experience, and I think each of us would potentially be surprised by what we would do for food in similar circumstances.

I think we get the beginning of why he turned against the Æsir in the story of the wall. People laugh about him turning into a mare and coming back with a foal, but this is actually a highly specific insult in that culture. Calling someone a mare was the height of ergi, and people could get killed over it. And yet here he is, blamed for the simple error of allowing the mason his horse, having to sacrifice his pride by deliberately taking on this role, and submitting to a horse. Did he receive any high honors for his great sacrifice? Not that we know of. Instead he was ridiculed.

The story of Sif's hair is another tale that is treated as if it was a simple lark, and yet there was significance there. We know from both Lokasenna and Hárbarðsljóð that Sif was in an adulterous relationship, most likely with Loki. One of the punishments for adultery in the norse world was to have one's hair cut off. Why he did it at this particular time is unknown, but at least part of his potential reasoning on taking the action should be clear: to let his friend Thor know that there were shenanigans.

The final story I will address is Baldr. Admittedly, chronology plays a part in this interpretation. Loki’s own children had been prophesied to be a problem for the Æsir, and because it was automatically assumed that the prophecy was true and incontrovertible, those children had been ripped from his family and cast to different places. However, when the prophecy in question involved Frigg and Odin's son, suddenly it was something that could be acted against, and extreme measures were taken to prevent the prophecy. Is it any wonder that he might be a tiny bit resentful of this? His children were subject to prophecy, therefore he moved to ensure that Baldr was as well.

I will gladly admit a good part of this rests on UPG. I have experience of the deity that tells me that he loves his family very intensely, and that he deeply feels the schism between the two sides of his family. I am not alone in this experience, it’s almost universal among his followers. But the single most important reason for me, for why I follow Loki, is quite simple. He’s here. If I need advice or support, he’s a calm presence. The chaos comes whether he’s around or not, but with his help I can navigate it without losing myself. His influence has been clear in my mental health (and yes, I am in therapy, and advise it for anyone who follows this sort of path), as per comments from my therapist over the years. He’s a caring friend and an excellent teacher. He understands chronic pain. He understands being helpless. He understands being in terrible circumstances in which you are powerless.

Loki is my 12 Step Higher power. What that means on a practical level is that any time I get stuck, I turn to him. When I get overwhelmed, he comforts me, and helps me establish a plan for dealing with things. When someone is confiding in me and I don’t know what to say, I listen to that small still voice inside, and share what I can. When I next journey I will ask Loki about what that voice said; usually it was a nudge from him. When I was in the hospital for a month because my greater trochanter snapped off my femur, he was there, supporting me as I waited days for the surgeon to get back into town and treat me, as I had to relearn how to sit, stand, walk, even use the toilet. When I was then stuck on 3 IV antibiotics 3 times a day through a PICC line at home for several months, he was there, cheering me on and comforting me as I cried. I get nudges from him at times when I need to do something that I start to blow off: just last week a storm came through, and I got a nudge that I might want to turn my PC off (I usually leave it sleeping). The storm fried my BiPAP, but my PC survived. It’s these little things that make up a relationship, and he is there.

No, there is no evidence that he was worshipped back in the Heathen era… But there is evidence he was well thought of in the folklore of the Faroe Islands. Lokka Táttur is a late middle ages song in which Loki features as the hero, using his wiles to save a young boy. The story begins when a farmer loses his son in a bet to a giant. He calls first on Óðin and then Hønir to save his son, and each hides the boy once, but the giant comes back. Finally the father calls on Lokki, who has a plan to eliminate the threat entirely, and does so (Hopkins, 2025). Clearly, Loki was not universally a villain.

I know that this article isn’t going to convince the people attacking us Lokeans to stop. It won’t change their minds one iota. That’s not why I wrote this. I wrote it because there are other people out there who are on the fence who read the arguments. I wrote it because every once in a while, someone opposed to Loki worship will honestly ask me the question. And I wrote it because I’m sick of typing the whole cursed thing out over and over every time my temper gets the better of me and I actually engage in the argument. It’s exhausting.

Kethesa (KEep The HEart SAcred),
Asra Lokakona

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