Loki is the trickster of Norse mythology. He was born to giants but lives among the gods in Asgard, where he's both their best problem-solver and their biggest headache. He can change his shape at will and talk his way out of almost anything. His tricks grow darker as the stories go on, and in the end he turns against the gods at Ragnarök.
Loki once lost a bet that put his head on the line. When the winner came to collect, Loki argued that he'd promised the head but not the neck, so nobody could take one without the other. The argument worked and he kept his head.
When the tricks turn nasty the gods bind Loki beneath a snake that drips venom. His wife Sigyn stays beside him with a bowl to catch the drops. Stories say that when she has to empty it the venom lands on his face, and his shaking makes the ground quake.
Artists love giving Loki a horned helmet, but the old stories never did. Real Viking helmets were plain and rounded, and the horned look comes from 1800s paintings and stage costumes.
Loki is the wild card of Asgard. He was born to giants yet sits at the table of the gods, bound to Odin by an oath of blood brotherhood. He belongs fully to neither world and is welcome (and sometimes unwelcome) in both, at least until his next trick.
No shape holds him for long. In the old stories he slips away as a salmon, rides the wind as a falcon and buzzes about as a fly to spoil a rival's work. His tongue is just as quick. He talks his way into trouble and out of it again, often in the same breath.
That is what makes Loki so fascinating. He is the spark that sets every story alight. Without his mischief Thor would have no hammer and Sif no golden hair. Yet the same restless fire that gives the gods their treasures also brings their downfall. In the end Loki stands on the side of the giants at Ragnarök, the trickster who was always half a friend and half a storm waiting to break.
