The Dark God That Destroyed the World & Killed the Gods - Norse Mythology Explained
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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to be discussing Loki. Let's get into it.As capricious as the wind, as dependable as a guttering flame, and ultimately, as devastating as an extinction-level meteorite impact, Loki, the wily trickster, is an enigmatic figure in Norse mythology. He's counted amongst the Aesir gods, but he'll fight for the giants come Ragnarok. Despite his antics regularly miring the gods in predicaments, his cunning and cleverness usually extricates them before too much damage is caused, even creating profit for the gods on many occasions. But this pattern ceases to continue in the mythic future. In the end, the darker part of Loki's nature eventually wins out, and the trouble he causes precipitates the death of the gods and the destruction of the world during Ragnarok, the great, ever-looming, all-consuming conflict.In Norse mythology, what tribe someone belongs to is contingent on their paternal pedigree. This is to say that people took after the father when being categorized. Most of the Aesir gods, the gods who dwell in Asgard are half-giant, but despite their split heritage, are gods, not giants, because their fathers were gods. Similarly, those whose fathers were giants, even if their mothers were gods, are considered to be of giant-kind. That kinship was reckoned through the paternal line is why it is thought that Loki was a giant, despite him living in Asgard and being counted amongst the Aesir gods. His father was a giant called Farbauti, and his mother, called either Laufey or Nal, was of ambiguous descent, being either a god or a giant.Loki had two brothers, Byleist and Helblindi, though little is known of either of them, and he had five children. Two of them, Nari and Narfi, were human-like in appearance, and he sired them by his wife, Sigyn. The other three, Hel, who presided over the underworld, Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, and Fenrir, a monstrous wolf, he sired by the ogress Angrboda. We'll discuss these children in more detail later in the video as we unpack various aspects of Loki's story.