Avenger Research Paper

Loki is commonly regarded as the Norse God of tricks and mischief, which has been shown in many situations. It is very important to know that Loki developed into the character that we have seen in the movie Thor. “Loki 's development from a helpful assistant to the Gods to one of their primary adversaries is parallel to the demise of the world” (Schnurbein, 116) To me, this shows that Loki learned this passion for evil demise from the Gods and the society that they live in. Loki’s skill set is very interesting to me because when you think of a mythical God, you expect to think of a mighty warrior that exemplifies strength. But, Loki is quite the opposite, instead he makes up for his lack of brawn with his intelligence and persuasive skills.

An excerpt from Snorri Sturluson’s Edda gives a good example of Loki using his mouth to talk people out of things, even though it backfired in the end. In Skaldskaparmal when Thor caught Loki, “Then the Dwarf was going to cut off Loki’s head, then Loki said the head was his but not the neck. Then the dwarf got a thong and a knife and tried to pierce holes in Loki’s lips and was going to stitch up his mouth, but the knife would not cut. Then Loki said it would be better if his brother Awl was there, and as soon as he spoke his name Awl was there, and it pierced his lips. He stitched the lips together, and it tore the edges off. The thong that Loki’s mouth was stitched up with is called Vartari.” (Sturluson, 35-36) This situation detailed Loki’s most powerful weapons, his mind and mouth, and what he can do with it. He talked himself out of out a situation where he easily could have been killed, but instead only ended up with his mouth being sewn together. To me, this showed that Loki could only lie and make things up to a point until things get caught up with him and that’s when he became vulnerable and his mouth was able to be

He said “To understand this properly, it is necessary to see that Snorri did not add Loki as just another character in this drama but as the personification of a socio-anthropological principle already at work in the Gods” (Moosebrugger, 107) This quote is very intriguing to me due to the fact that he was not just used as another character but instead as a socio-anthropological personification. A socio-anthropological principle are principles that show how people act in different social and cultural settings across the globe. The principle that Loki was personifying in these Norse myths were that others in this society were all not perfect and that mischief was a hidden big part of these stories. From what we have learned in this class, I know that there are a variety of morals that are apart of Scandinavian mythology. The morals can be learned from a variety of characters and for a variety of reasons and Loki was certainly used in this sense as well. The morals that people could have learned from situations in which Loki was involved include: lying can only get you so far in life until you get caught, intelligence is a powerful tool and think before you