Norse Myths · Part 12 · Towards the end · B2
Loki Bound
Part 12 of the Norse Myths: after Baldur’s death, Loki insults every god at a feast, flees, and hides as a salmon in a waterfall. The gods catch him in a net of his own invention and bind him in a cave beneath a dripping serpent; only his wife Sigyn stays with him, holding a bowl to catch the poison. The passive (was caught, is said to cause), have / get something done, and the language of crime and punishment, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria. The punishment is told briefly.
Loki has been with us all through the Norse myths: clever, funny, helpful, dangerous. He got Thor’s hammer back, and the treasures of the dwarves, and Idun. But after Baldur’s death, the gods knew what he really was. Tonight, Loki’s luck runs out.
Many people feel that way, Marcos. And the story is not only about punishment. It’s about the one person who stayed with Loki when everyone else turned against him: his wife, Sigyn. Tonight we use the passive, the grammar of things done to people.
The hall of the sea-giant Ægir, a waterfall, and a cave beneath the earth
Loki is one of the strangest figures in any mythology: a giant’s son who lives among the gods, Odin’s blood-brother, a shape-changer who can become a mare, a falcon, a fly or a salmon. Sometimes he helps the gods; more and more often he harms them. Scholars still argue about whether he was ever worshipped, or was always a figure of stories.
In the poem Lokasenna (“Loki’s Quarrel”), Loki forces his way into a feast in the hall of the sea-giant Ægir and insults every god and goddess there, revealing their secrets and scandals, until Thor arrives and threatens him with his hammer. Then Loki flees. He builds a house with four doors so that he can see in every direction, and spends his days in a waterfall in the shape of a salmon. Wondering how the gods might catch him, he…
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