Affiliation:
1. University of California, Berkeley
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.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press