Exploring Norse Mythology: The Children of Loki

the children of Loki Loki is easily one of the most unique and enigmatic characters within Norse mythology as discussed in the previous video covering him part of what makes him so unique are the various children that he had and their roles in the myths while most of these children have been covered already in other videos this video will consolidate all the info we have on the children of Loki seen as Loki is at least half yotan thanks to his father and possibly a foley Odin if his mother was also one his children can also be technically considered yo Kenard as well what exactly that entails is debatable as most of his children are more monstrous or animalistic than Yoda are tend to be the two most normal of his children were only mentioned in relation to the binding of Loki after the death of Balder there's some confusion on their names between nari narvi or volley but at least one of them was the son of Loki's wife Sigyn one of these children was transformed by Odin into a wolf who proceeded to devour his brother the brothers entrails were then used to bind Loki some stones in a cave practically nothing else is known of these children of the situation with Loki's children Loki giving birth to sleep near the horse is among the strangest the story has already been mentioned in previous videos but I'll repeat it here for completions sake during the fortification of Asgard when the gods hired a yo tent to construct walls around their realm Loki was the one to forge the agreement between them and the yotan the agreement which involved the yotan finishing the job very quickly in exchange for the hand of a goddess in marriage was largely unacceptable for the gods and they expected him to fail after seeing that he was likely going to complete it on time they threatened violence upon Loki and he knew he had to sabotage the yo Tunes work in some way seen as the Odin's incredible horse was responsible for most of the heavy lifting Loki went to the horse in the shape of a mayor as Loki was a renowned shapeshifter the horse seen the beautiful mayor chased after Loki causing the yotan to fail his side of the agreement meanwhile Loki became pregnant after his interaction with the horse and soon gave birth to an eight-legged horse named sleep near meaning the sliding one or the slippery one sleep near became Odin's personal steed capable of traveling over land sea and air and was used to travel between realms Loki's most notable children however were with the yotan woman on Garbo de although the poetic Edda only lists the wolf Fenrir as been Loki's child with anger boda the prose edda includes your man gunned and he'll these children were first brought up in the realm of Jotunheim and when the ass here gods learned of them they discovered prophecies that spoke of the great mischief and disaster that would arise from them the gods expected trouble from these children partially because of who their mother was but more so because of who their father was Odin made the decision to deal with the children in one way or another by tossing your Mangan into the deep sea surrounding Midgard Hell into the underworld giving her authority over any that are sent to her and Fenrir was eventually bound in shackles hell goddess of the underworld that shares her name is a grim and fierce figure that appears to be half living and half dead she is generally known to be indifferent to both the living and the dead and her name was often invoked in relation to the grave not much else is known about hell and her most significant appearance in Norse sources is in the tale of the death of Balder and she offered to return Balder to the realm of the living as long as everything in the cosmos weeped for him when Loki who was the indirect cause of Boulder's death did not weep for him hell kept Balder until the time of Ragnarok hell's rolling Ragnarok is unknown and it's unclear if she still lives after the event or if she still watches over the dead your man gunned the Midgard serpent was thrown into the great sea around the realm of Midgard when he was still somewhat small he eventually grew large enough to wrap his body around the world and bite his own tail it said that when your man Gunn releases his tail Ragnarok will begin but this does contradict the story of Thor's fishing trip where you're Meaghan Rises his head up out of the water Thor's first encounter with your Mangan was in disguise when Thor went to the keep of the yotan boot guard Loki the tale is a fanciful one only found in the prose edda and not the poetic and features Thor and his companions being tricked in a number of contests these contests involved Loki competing to eat a trench of meat but loses and later learns he was competing against wildfire itself Thor gets into a drinking contest to drink from a large horn but fails and later learns he was drinking the sea itself Thor is also told to lift a giant cat but barely does so and later learns the cat was actually the Midgard serpent in disguise Thor's next encounter with your Mangan is on his fishing trip with the Jotunheim ear Thor takes a boat far out into the sea and uses a cow's head as bait to catch your man ghent after hooking him he pulls his head up out of the water and attempts to kill it but the line breaks whether it snaps or is cut by haim ear this is the last that Thor would see of your man gun until Ragnarok when Ragnarok arrives your man gun will come out of the sea and will poison the sky with his venom Thor and your man Gunn will do battle for the final time with Thor slain the serpent but becomes poisoned by his venom after taking nine steps Thor drops dead Fenrir meaning fend weller is the last significant child of Loki and the gods knew that Fenrir was involved in a terrible prophecy related to the demise of Odin they first attempted to raise the wolf amongst themselves to keep it under their watchful eyes and only tear was bold enough to approach and feed the wolf tear was a strong God associated with battle justice and he was renowned for his bravery by feeding Fenrir unfortunately Fenrir grew at a rapid rate much like your Mangan and so the gods decided he could not stay in Asgard rather than letting him roam free they decided to bind him with chains they crafted a strong shackle brought it to Fenrir claiming they wanted to test his strength Fenrir saw that this would hardly be much of a test and agreed to let them shackle him he stretched his muscles and the shackle broke easily so the gods went and crafted a second one twice as strong once again they brought it to the wolf saying they wanted him to test it and he of course agreed snapping it was slightly more effort the gods became worried that they would not be able to bind Fenrir and so they went to the realm of the dwarves the most skilled craftsmen in the nine realms and asked them to create a magical binding that had no equal the binding they created was forged from six things the sound of a cat's footsteps the beard of a woman the roots of mountains the breath of a fish the sinews of a bear and the spittle of a bird this magical robe was brought to Fenrir who suspected trickery based on how light and soft the binding looked so he refused to be bound with it unless one of the gods would lay their hand in his mouth as a pledge of good faith of course none of the gods were willing to lose a hand until tears stepped forward and placed his hand in the mouth of the wolf when they bound Fenrir he attempted to get out but as he could not he bit off tears hand and swallowed it they took Fenrir to a desolate place and tied him to a boulder they also placed a sword in his mouth keeping it stuck open and his endless drool eventually formed a river he or he would remain till the time of Ragnarok when Ragnarok comes Fenrir will break free and Odin will ride to fight him in their battle Fenrir will devour Odin but Odin's son víðarr will avenge his father by holding open Fenner's jaws using a special boot this boot is formed from all of the extra leather pieces that people have cut from their own shoes so it said that anyone who is concerned enough to give assistance to the gods should throw those pieces away much like Loki his children comprised some of the most interesting aspects of Norse mythology although they also highlight some of the issues with fragmented source materials also much like Loki his children are directly linked to the death of the gods with Loki involved in the deaths of Balder and Haim doll your Mangan killing Thor Fenrir killing Odin and hell directly involved with death perhaps most interesting is a section from the prose edda when a character is asked where the gods didn't kill Fenrir since they knew the destruction that would follow him the character responds by saying that the gods so greatly respected their holy places that they would rather have odin die than have the wolf's blood to file them whether that says more about the gods or Fenrir I'll leave for you to decide but it's clear that God certainly did not care for the children of Loki you

Channel: The Exploring Series

Views: 617,794

Rating: 4.9343681 out of 5

Keywords: norse mythology, viking mythology, norse gods, norse mythology (literature subject), viking gods, norse mythology explained, norse myths, midgard serpent, norse myth, journey through norse mythology, viking religion, prose edda, nordisk mytologi, nordic gods, norse lore, norse mythology loki, loki (deity), odin (deity), lokis children, jormungand, jormungandr, world serpent, fenrir, fenris wolf, hel, what is the midgard serpent, who are loki's children

Id: jbBVRfCNIEw

Length: 11min 6sec (666 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 02 2018