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12 - Loki the Slandered God? Selective Omission of Skaldic Citations in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2021

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Summary

Abstract

Despite widespread acknowledgment of the complexity of Loki's nature and function in Old Norse mythology, many critical approaches nonetheless begin from an implicit foundational assumption that he is in essence a negative and antagonistic figure. Conversely, some scholars have interpreted Loki as a culture hero, whilst it is widely agreed that aspects of his negative characterization developed under the influence of traditions about the Christian Devil. This chapter considers the extent to which the thirteenth-century Icelandic historian and mythographer Snorri Sturluson actively contributed in his Edda to the ‘demonization of Loki’ (John Lindow, Norse Mythology [2001], 303), through an analysis of the lists of kennings (poetic periphrases, quoted from older skaldic verse) which Snorri provides for major mythological entities.

Keywords: Icelandic poetry, Christianization, polarity, pagan gods

The attempt to understand the nature and function of Loki has represented one of the most enduring challenges to scholars of Old Norse mythology. He has been variously identified as a fire-god, a spider-god, a chthonic god of the dead, a hypostasis of Óðinn, and as a version of Lucifer transplanted from the Christian tradition. Recent specialist studies of Loki have sought to reconcile the disparate and often contradictory evidence of medieval literature and later folklore into a unified conception of Loki which recognizes his multifaceted nature. However, there remains a tendency in non-specialist scholarship and in popular culture to represent Loki as a predominantly antagonistic figure, reflecting the influence of his portrayal in the Edda, a thirteenth-century mythographic work by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, often treated as the locus classicus for Old Norse myth. Scholars of Old Norse mythology recognize that Snorri's text cannot be used straightforwardly as a reliable guide to pre-Christian traditions; what is less certain is the extent to which the negative characterization of Loki is the product of Snorri's own authorial initiative. In what follows, I aim to show that Snorri's selective use of Viking-Age poetic source-material provides clear evidence of his familiarity with a more nuanced conception of Loki, which he consciously suppressed or rejected.

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Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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