Loki the Jotun (Revised)

Throughout the decades that I have followed the path of Odinism and Wodenism I have seen many attempts at trying to 'rehabilitate' Loki in order to fit him into the pantheon of gods, and even as a god to be worshipped. This seems to stem from the fact that he is the blood-brother of Woden from very ancient times, but he is not of the stock of the gods, but of the Jotun. Neither is Loki the dark-side of Woden, for though Woden does have a dark side this is certainly not the same as that of Loki. In my own opinion Loki is the polar-opposite of Woden, which could well explain his actions, and also certain kennings that could be applied to him rather than to Woden as they have been. 

Whereas Woden may take a dark path, and also sometimes a rather dishonourable path, this is done to protect or to enhance gods and men, but Loki's actions from the very start are nothing short of malicious and downright destructive. Loki is certainly an Agent of Change and an Agent of Chaos but the gods are there to uphold the Cosmic Order and World Order, and the Arya is the race that does the Will of the Gods in Middle-Earth. Loki's actions gradually break down the order of things, and eventually lead to total destruction of Gods and Men. Looking at the myths we find the true nature of Loki, which I am going to go into here.

The Golden Age comes to an end due to the actions of Loki, this is made clear when we look at the first war that broke out in the worlds. We need to consider that at this time the Elves and Dwarfs were the beneficient agents of Nature, and it is here that the trouble starts. One clan of Elves - the Sons of Ivalde - had made the following for the gods - Gungnir, the Spear of Woden, Sif's Golden Hair, and Frey's ship named Skidbladnir. The ever-wily and malicious Loki approached another Elf-Clan - the Sons of Sindre - and wagered that they could not produce treasures for the gods that were just as good as those of the Sons of Ivalde. 

The Sons of Sindre oblige by making the treasures listed above, and the gods are then made to decide between the two clans as to whose work is the best. The gods come down on the side of the Sons of Sindre, and in doing so antagonise this Elf-Clan creating a rift between the Gods and the Agents of Nature. The Sons of Ivalde promptly ceased to serve the gods and allied with their enemies the Frost-Giants. The war between the gods and elves was accompanied by a massive earthquake when the Giantesses Fenja and Menja threw the world-mill out of balance and the axis of the earth was tilted, with it the first Fimbul Winter set in over the Northlands. This first war was due to the whiles of Loki whose actions broke the peace of the world and caused the first wars involving gods, elves and men.

During the Golden Age the World-Mill churned out gold and plenty, but through the actions of the two Jotun-Maids it now turned our salt and sand - the world was drastically changed. The Frost-Giants took control of the Northlands and the Northern Folk were forced southwards, an action in itself which created chaos, disorder and kindred wars. Indeed, again due to the original action of Loki kindred wars flared up everywhere with the movement of tribes southwards into areas already occupied by other tribes. 

We need to add here that if the sequence of events is such that the treasures of the Sons of Ivalde were made at the end of the Golden Age, presumably because weapons would only be needed after it ended, then the Myth of Sif's Golden Hair also comes before the ending of the Golden Age. Briefly, this myth tells us that Loki cut off the hair of Sif, and was then forced to get the Sons of Ivalde to create for her a new head of Golden Hair. At first glance the cutting off of Sif's hair may seem a harmless prank, but when we consider who the goddess Sif is, and her role amongst the gods, then things appear in a totally different light. Sif is the Corn Goddess and her hair is the Golden Corn; Loki thus cuts off the power of the Golden Corn, and when the Elves fashion a substitute, that is exactly what it is - the substitution of an artificial product. Corn found in Egypt dating back over 2000 years has been found to be far superior to anything we grow today - we have lost the Ur-Corn in favour of an artificial corn, all due to the malicious whiles of Loki. 

Right from the start we have two simple but malicious acts that seem to be treated as 'pranks' by many scholars, but which when studied carefully are far more sinister and indeed are malicious in their intent - as we shall see. At first glance Loki is not involved in the first Great War in the Worlds, but his female counterpart - Gullveig - certainly is. Again, at first glance Gullveig would seem to be the innocent victim, but this is far from the case, as we shall show here. Some consider Gullveig to be Freya, but she hardly shows the essence of the Light-Goddess, even if (as we shall see) Freya has dabbled on the darker side - as did Woden. Gullveig is not Freya as Loki is not Woden - both are the polar-opposites of Woden and Freya, which is why they may seem to show similarities. 

Like Loki, Gullveig is a Jotun allowed into Asgard - Realm of the Gods - but as Loki is linked to Woden and the Asen, Gullveig is linked to Freya and the Wanen. Gullveig, as her Middle-Earth counterpart, Heid, roamed MIddle-Earth practising black sorcery and encouraging evil in men. It would appear from reading between the lines that as Heid did below, Gullveig did above. We find that Freya practises the Seidr-Magic, and it is she that teaches this to Woden. In certain texts Woden is accused of practising a debased and degenerate form of sorcery, and this could be Seidh-Sorcery. Indeed, in one particular legend Woden is banished from Asgard for practising Dark Sorcery, and when he is reinstated he bans all forms of Dark Sorcery from Asgard and Midgard. We can see here a clear hint that Gullveig was the one to introduce the Asen and Wanen to Dark Seidh-Sorcery through Freya and then Woden, and that this was the reason why the Asen-Gods decided to burn her - as a practitioner of Dark Witchcraft. 

The Gods of Asgard pierce Gullveig with spears and burn her, but three times she burns and three times is reborn or revived - her essence lives on. Her dark magical and terrible nature cannot be destroyed, as the gods find out. The argument that broke out between the Asen and Wanen would seem to be one of the responsibility for compensation and not for the slaying of Gullveig itself. It would seem that Frey's marriage to Gerda made Gullveig his kin, since Aurboda is the mother of Gerda and Gymer her father. Rather than seeing Freya as Gullveig, which certainly does not fit at all, I would go along with Viktor Rydberg who sees Gullveing as Aurboda, who is the mother of Gerda and thus then linked by marriage to the Wanen. Hence their demand for wer-gild. Since the demand was not met by the Asen, and Woden was obviously incensed by something said by the Wanen, the first Great War in the Heavens took place - paralleled by the first Great War on the Earth below. 

If, following Viktor Rydberg, Gullveig (*), Aurboda (*) and Angerboda are all the same, then The Lay of Hyndla 40,41 tells us that Loki found the burnt-heart of Gullveig and ate it. Since the heart is seen as the soul then Loki takes into himself the essence of this Female Evil and thus empowers this side of his androgyne nature. (For this reason the legends associated with blood-thirsty and evil vampires emphasise that a pointed stake must be thrust into the heart - in order to destroy the soul of the vampire as well as its body). Clearly the gods burnt the  form of Gullveig but the essence of her evil remained. 

Through Angerboda, Loki fathers the three monsters - Fenris Wolf, Iormungand Serpent, and Hell (I've used the English spelling on purpose here which will become clear later). Angerboda dwells in Ironwood, and this suggests that the gods banished her essence to this area of the East. Gullveig is also called Hrimnir's daughter who is the servant of Frigg when she dwelt in Asgard, but in Ironwood she is the mother of the Evil Wargs - she fostered the 'sons of world-ruin' that Loki will lead against the Gods. She had to be banished since her essence and soul could not be destroyed; at the same time Loki found her burnt heart and ate it, thus taking her essence into himself too. 

(*) Gullveig means Gold (gull) Power-Drink (veig) whereas Aurboda means Gold (aur) Fermenting-Liquid (boda from bodhi). Both names mean the same, which is why I follow Rydberg on this one. 

Voluspa 25-26 relates how the counsel of Asen and Wanen met to decide 'who had filled the air with foul treason' and who was responsible for delivering Woden's wife (Freya) to the Jotun - the latter which was again down to the wiles of Loki. The one found guilty was slain by Thunor, but we are not told details. The result of the war was that the Asen lost and victory was by the Wanen, or some accounts say a truce was declared and hostages exchanged. Whatever the case, in the end the two sides were reconciled and they formed one set of gods again. 

We have seen here how Gullveig had a counterpart in Middle-Earth, and we find that Loki also worked his evil in this world too. We find in certain legends concerning Hadding (Hearding) that Loki plots against Hadding possibly to gain favour with the triumphant Wanen who had backed Svipdag against Hadding. It is Woden who rescues Hadding from Loki's snares by taking him off to a safe place on Sleipnir. In this safe place Woden gives Hadding a drink which makes him have enormous strength, and it enables him to free himself from any bonds and fetters. This drink contained the Leifnir's Flames - which we shall not go into here. Hadding again falls into the hands of Loki who chains him and has a wild beast look over him. Woden charms the guards to sleep and Hadding bursts the fetters and slays the beast, eating the heart of the beast as directed by Woden. 

This appears to be a war between the Northern Teutons (backed by the Wanen) and the Eastern Teutons (backed by the Asen), in which Hadding is first defeated; Saxo ascribes this defeat to the whiles of Loki. Victor Rydberg covers this issue in great details in Teutonic Mythology, so I am not going to go into this here, but he has something of extreme importance to say on the subject of Loki -

"His purpose is to frustrate every effort to bring about reconciliation, and by means of persuasion and falsehoods to increase the enmity between Halfdan's descendants (i.e. Hadding) in order that they may mutually destroy each other."

Can we not now see that the last two World Wars were the work of Loki - the Enemy Within - since this is exactly the same historical workings as we have here in very ancient times. In this Loki backs one side over the other and both are decimated in the battles that he has caused. In fact we see Loki working on both sides in war after war after war. Note the phrase which fits today's world - 'in order that they may mutually destroy each other' which is exactly what is happening to our Folk today. 

We may also gleam a hint of the same evil force as Loki in the figure of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, since Gollum is always by the side of the Shire-Folk, always seeking to kill them in order to regain the Ring of Power. Gollum, as Smeagol, slays his own kinsman, Deagol, in order to get the One Ring from him, and then becomes obsessed with the power of the Gold Ring. I have no idea where Tolkien got the idea of the Gollum or whether it relates to the Golem which was an artificial creature of a totally destructive nature formed by a Jewish Rabbi (*) in Prague, using Dark Sorcery. Both Loki and Gollum seem to have split-personalities, moving from normal to evil and back again, but with the darker side gradually becoming more dominant (**). Sauron - the Dark Lord - is another aspect of the same destructive and oppressive force, and he too is 'slain' but his 'spirit' still exists and rises once more in a later age. 

(*) I believe that Karl Marx was descended from this same Rabbi.

(**) It should be noted that Gollum's greed for the Ring of Power is his downfall, and it is he himself who finally brings an end to the evil of the world, since he falls (with the Ring) into the fires of Mount Doom.

The figure named blindi who tries to subvert Helgi Hundingsbane may well be that of Loki and not that of Woden. If we see the epithet blindi as meaning Loki here then we can see how being the polar-opposite to Woden he has the same titles on some occasions as Woden. 

We should not forget that it is Loki who is responsible for slaying the Sun-God, Balder, through his use (again) of another - Blind Hod. It is also Loki who stops the resurrection of Balder through shape-shifting into a Giantess. This act was due to his jealousy of the Sun-God and was obviously done at the last part of the Golden Age. It is clear that the Gods knew what was coming for Mimir prepared a place in Hela's Shining Plains for the last inhabitants of the Golden Age, and for Balder and Nanna who went there after. This was Odainsacre where dwelt the Asmegir - Lif and Liftthrasir. 

We find an instance of Loki leading the battles, for he is called 'leader of the warriors forward' and leader of the warriors back' in Thjodolf's poem Haustlaung and Eilif Gudrunson's Thorsdrapa, where he is connected to leading the battles between Teutonic Kinfolk. It is interesting to note that Woden leading the other side, creates the battle-array called svinfylkja which is the wedge-shaped formation (boar-snout) used by Hamal in battle. We can see from World War II how Wotan led one side against an alliance under the yoke of the Evil One - Loki. 

Loki is found, captured and bound, but breaks loose and is the one who leads the Armies of Destruction against the Gods at the very end - Ragnarok. It is Loki's Brood who have during the ages dwelt amongst the gods and amongst men, and have plotted for long their destruction from within. Weakened at the end by their toil, struggle and strife, gods and men are finally assailed by the full forces of Loki's Brood, leading the Jotun and Monsters of Chaos into the Final Battle. 

There is one more thing we need to look at concerning Gullveig-Loki and that concerns the dark magic that Heid-Gullveig practiced when going from house to house in Midgard. This is termed Seidh-Leikin in the legends. Leikin is the horseman of torture and death, and thus Heid-Gullveig practices a form of dark Seidh-Sorcery that brings to man disease and epidemics. We know from the Christian Bible that the Egyptians accused the Israelite Priests of using dark sorcery that produces diseases and epidemics, and also accusations were throw of the same type when the Black Death broke out. Since Loki ate her heart and took in here essence he too brings this destruction to mankind. 

When Loki is firmly bound order, stability and a healthy society can develop, but with the emancipation of Loki there follows degeneracy, unhealthy practices, decay, disease, war and conflict. We can see today the results of the emancipation of Loki's Brood with a world of epidemics, wars, degeneracy, filth, decay, and death all around us. 

It is also possible, as Rydberg points out, that the three Thurs-Maidens that came from Jotunheim were not, as some think (and I think I have been guilty of that too), the Wyrd Sisters (Norns) but were Heid-Gulveig-Angerboda in their triple-aspect, which is underlined when she is burned three times and comes alive again each time. This is when the trouble started!

There is another an far greater consequence of the first Great War of the Worlds, and that is the death of Mimir who is the Ur-Smith or Primal Craftsman. Mimir is the Guardian of the World Tree or White Tree (Yggdrasil) and its Watchman. His death removes this guardianship altogether, and at the same time the Seven Sons of Mimir ruled the seven seasons according to the Primal Cosmic Laws. These Seven Sons of Mimir go into a long sleep (Seven Sleepers - 'Sleep of the Ages')) and thus the White Tree (here representing the Aryan Race) withers and grows old, devoid of its regenerative powers. The Seven Sons of Mimir will only awaken when Hama-Heimdall blows the Giallarhorn, when they will pick up the Seven Swords to defend the Lower Worlds.

*  Again, when I spoke of 'Hell', using this spelling, this is not specifically Hel or Hela which is admittedly a place of Shadow and Darkness in part, but is also a place of Light and Green in other parts. Loki's daughter 'Hell' is of this Shadow-World. Odainsacre is in Hela as opposed to 'Hell' as I have put it. The Shadow-World within the Lower Realms is where the 'shadows' were called up in ancient times by dark black magicians. 

** In regard again to this 'Shadow-World' within the Lower World we have shown elsewhere how Black Sorcerers invoked and released such powers which resulted in the sinking of Atlantis. One figure that is rather a paradox and led a life which was degenerate was Aleister Crowley. Reading his 'Book of the Law' we see that his work was concerned with the creation of a Solar-Religion on a Nietzschean Ethic, but some of the things he actually did were rather strange, and certainly do not fit in with this work at all. Crowley used what is called 'Enochian Magic' to call up certain very chaotic and destructive 'demons' (for want of a better word), and there followed two rather devastating world wars. We can trace this 'Enochian Magic' back to a magician who lived at the time of Elizabeth I and who seems to have greatly influenced the society of the time. John Dee, with the aid of a man named Kelly, invoked the same 'demons' using this 'Enochian Magic' which was given to Dee and Kelly. In both cases we may find that an outside influence effected their work in some sinister way.

*** These Dark Forces also seem to be what H.P. Lovecraft called 'The Great Old Ones'; he seems to have got the stuff for his books from horrible dreams and nightmares. The object of these 'Great Old Ones' seems to be to turn man against man until they no longer exist. 

**** We should note in regard to the Jotun-Powers who seem to be antagonistic towards Gods and Men but at the same time some marry into the God-Clans, that this can be explained when we consider that there are not one Jotun-Clan but two distinct and different Jotun-Clans. Ymir bore a son (possibly Mimir) and a daughter (Bestla = 'Best Blood') from under his armpit - i.e. these were Sweat-Born Jotun. This was the Noble Jotun-Race, as opposed to the ignoble race which he produced from his legs. We have confirmation of this in the Rig Veda where the lowest caste is produced from the feet - the Sudra-Caste who are the non-Initiate Caste of slaves. So the Asa-Gods descended from the Noble Jotun-Clan through Bor's marriage to Bestla. This would also go some way to explaining the phenomena that the Ignoble-Jotun have always allied with (or stirred up to revolt) the slave-caste, one fine example being Marxist Communism which was the 'Revolt of the Masses'. This was also the case in the French Revolution and all other 'Red Revolutions' that have happened in history - going back into ancient times.

We have an account in The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky that the early Second Race were the fathers of the 'Sweat-Born' and that the later Second Race were the 'Sweat-Born'. This fits with the idea that Ymir produced a Boy-Girl offspring from under his armpit - one of the areas where we sweat most. 

From the Iranian Bundahisn we find the following - 

'Auharmazd (Ahura-Mazda) brought forth a sweat upon Gayomart, moreover Aurharmazd formed that sweat into the youthful body of a man of fifteen years.'

I suppose that we can see 'sweat' as symbolic of the 'Fire-from-Water' since this is liquid that is formed through the act of heat (fire) in the body. The hot liquid produced would constitute Fire-from-Water. The feet also sweat too, but this may even refer to the more foul-smelling sweat produced by the feet. 

What we find is the Noble Jotun are joined in kinship with the Sons of Buri through the marriage of Bor and Bestla, but the Sudra-Jotun go their way as the Sons of Darkness - the Light-Powers and Dark-Powers have separate and opposite destinies, as decreed from the beginning. Rydberg may be correct in seeing Mimir as the brother of Bestla since Mimir is always close to Woden, and even in death Woden charms his head in order to be able to speak with it when this is necessary. 



Rydberg also touches on the role played by Wayland (Volund) in this, and this role is rather an evil role in that he considers him to be one of the Sons of Ivalde who turned against the Gods after the quarrel between the Elf-Kins. This is not a subject to touch here and would need a great deal more study to consider whether this is right or not.