Truth Among Lies

Loki

Loki.

The tales spin him to be a trickster, an evil god who liked to cause trouble. You would pray to the gods to keep Loki and his schemes away from you, only praying to him if you needed his cunning for evil.

They say he killed Balder for his own amusement. They say he is a monstrous Jotan taking the form of a god. They say he cut off Sif's lovely hair for no reason. They say he insulted the gods one by one, only leaving once he was threatened. They say he was destined to face off against the gods on the day of Ragnarok.

But...is any of this true?

Did he actually kill Balder? Is he truly a Jotan? Why did he cut off Sif's hair? What drove him to insult the gods? Was he really always destined to fight the gods come Ragnarok?

Is Loki truly so evil, as we've been told all our lives?

***

Ah yes, Asgard. Home sweet home of the Aesir gods. The gods are safe here, away from the Jotan's where they can rule and watch over the mortals that worship them. And not just the Aesir gods, but the Vanir gods, too.

The gods split themselves into two types of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir. One group is more war-like with honed battle skills, while the other is more laid back and rules over nature. Although, there is one god who doesn't fit into either. That god, is Loki.

You see, Loki is the offspring of a giant, and a goddess. But in the end, despite his parentage and blood relations to the Jotan's, Loki chose to be on the side of the gods, to help aid them in any way he can. Loki made a pact with Odin to be his blood-brother. He swore to himself that he would help, that he would prove he was worthy of the title "god," even if the other gods didn't acknowledge his efforts.

And help he did.

There was once a builder who came to Asguard, claiming he could build a wall that surrounds Asgard so mighty, it would protect them from the frost giants for the gods by a certain day. The gods did not understand how he could do it by then, so they accepted his challenge.

The secret weapon the builder had up his sleeve was his horse. A strong steed that would drag the blocks in a seld to the builder so that he could make the wall. The builder and his worse worked at an amazing pace, and the gods began to worry.

They needed to get rid of the horse without killing it, and without being directly involved. They needed someone who could lire the loyal steed away from his master long enough to hinder the builder's pace.

They needed Loki.

Loki turned himself into a fine mare so tempting he lured the steed away, later returning to Asgard with a foal trailing behind him.

Because of Loki, the gods won their bet against the builder. Loki even entrusted his foal to Odin when the horse grew. That foal was named Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin.

Loki helped the god out of tons of tricky situations, he witted and schemed them out of trouble when their hands were tied behind their backs, when there was nothing they could have done themselves.

He made mistakes, like believing a traveling merchant when they sold him a tonic to make the user's hair more beautiful than anyone else's. Loki put the tonic on Sif's hairbrush behind her back, intending to surprise her the next morning when she woke up with even more beautiful hair than before.

Alas, the tonic made her hair fall out.

But he made up for it!

He had dwarves make Sif new hair out of pure gold, a ring and spear for Odin, a hammer for Thor, a boar and a ship for Frey. He made people laugh and smile when they were down, he was constantly called upon by the gods for help, and never once did he make excuses for himself. If he made a mistake, he made up for it.