eads him entirely astray, and he loses all love
for goodness and becomes utterly selfish and malevolent.

He represents evil in the seductive and seemingly beautiful form
in which it parades through the world. Because of this deceptive
appearance the gods did not at first avoid him, but treated him as one
of themselves in all good-fellowship, taking him with them wherever
they went, and admitting him not only to their merry-makings, but also
to their council hall, where, unfortunately, they too often listened
to his advice.

As we have already seen, Loki played a prominent part in the creation
of man, endowing him with the power of motion, and causing the blood
to circulate freely through his veins, whereby he was inspired with
passions. As personification of fire as well as of mischief, Loki
(lightning) is often seen with Thor (thunder), whom he accompanies
to Joetun-heim to recover his hammer, to Utgard-Loki's castle, and
to Geirrod's house. It is he who steals Freya's necklace and Sif's
hair, and betrays Idun into the power of Thiassi; and although he
sometimes gives the gods good advice and affords them real help,
it is only to extricate them from some predicament into which he has
rashly inveigled them.

Some authorities declare that, instead of making part of the creative
trilogy (Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur or Loki), this god originally
belonged to a pre-Odinic race of deities, and was the son of the
great giant Fornjotnr (Ymir), his brothers being Kari (air) and Hler
(water), and his sister Ran, the terrible goddess of the sea. Other
mythologists, however, make him the son of the giant Farbauti, who
has been identified with Bergelmir, the sole survivor of the deluge,
and of Laufeia (leafy isle) or Nal (vessel), his mother, thus stating
that his connection with Odin was only that of the Northern oath
of good-fellowship.

Loki (fire) first married Glut (glow), who bore him two daughters,
Eisa (embers) and Einmyria (ashes); it is therefore very evident
that Norsemen considered him emblematic of the hearth-fire, and when
the flaming wood crackles on the hearth the goodwives in the North
are still wont to say that Loki is beating his children. Besides
this wife, Loki is also said to have wedded the giantess Angur-boda
(the anguish-boding), who dwelt in Joetun-heim, and who, as we have
already seen, bore him the three monsters: Hel, goddess of death,
the Midgard snake Ioermungandr, and the grim wolf Fenris.