Quote:
Originally Posted by citac
Myth Loki was a force of nature, of chaos, and chaos isn't evil - you cannot hate tornadoes and earthquakes no matter how much death and destruction they leave in their wake. So people explore what would happen if there was an actual breathing personification of chaos with thought processes completely alien to how we think and feel.
|
There's also the take that Loki is a trickster god like Hermes or Coyote, which is a role that IIRC has no place in a monotheistic system. Monotheistic religions are always srs bsns, at least in the minds of their priests and more fundamentalist devotees. Christian editors would have thus written Loki as a flat-out god of evil, just like how they (and some greeks before them) wrote Set(h) as a god of evil.
Other possibilities I remember include Loki as a fire god and Thor's drinking buddy (Mead Horn of the Giants), part of a seasonal cycle (Death of Baldur) akin to the modern Oak King- Holly King cycle, and possibly a punisher of those who show off too their divine- given blessings too much (also Death of Baldur).