Scandinavian Mythology
Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda
13th century, Icelandic: numerous copies in Iceland, Copenhagen.
Loki turned himself into a salmon and hid in a river.
‘There were three principal gods in the Scandinavian pantheon,’ said Quintin.
‘Five really,’ said Miranda.
‘Five?’ replied Quintin. ‘Thor, Odin, Loki, and then all the others.’
‘What about Freyja and her brother Frey?’ asked Miranda.
‘Oh okay, I suppose so,’ said Quintin. ‘But they were members of the Vanir, not the Aesir. When the Asiatic gods invaded Europe, according to Snorri Sturluson, who wrote in Iceland in the thirteenth century, the Vanir were already there. But rather than being annihilated, which usually happens with old gods when the new ones arrive, there was an exchange and some of the Vanir went to live in Asgard with the Asiatic gods. And they mixed their spittle in a big cauldron.’
‘Which means that all their poetry and belief was melded together,’ said Miranda. ‘And a lot of the stories that Snorri tells reflect this - like when Loki and Heimdall become seals, and the fact that Loki is always borrowing the ability to change into a hawk from the goddess Freyja when he needs to fly to Giantland.’
‘Like the goddess Isis and her vulture form then. But the giants were the enemies of the gods,’ said Quintin.
‘That's right - they were the old gods. But Loki is the son of a giant and he will fight on their side at the final battle, at the end of the world,’ replied Miranda. ‘It all begins with the death of the god Baldr, which was all Loki’s doing.
‘Baldr had had bad dreams and feared what they might mean. So all the gods of Asgard went around getting assurances from everything in the world that they would do no harm to Baldr. Having obtained all this, they then amused themselves by throwing stones and spears at Baldr, knowing that everything they threw had promised not to do him any harm. It was like a festival and a circus. Great fun! Except that Loki had already disguised himself as an old woman and gone to Freyja to get the low down on what was happening. She told him that everything had made the promise except for the mistletoe. So he persuaded the blind god Hod to throw a spear of mistletoe at Baldr, and it went right through Baldr and killed him.
‘All the gods knew at once that Loki lay behind this murder, but he fled from them and turned himself into a salmon and hid in a river.
