Loki’s Punishment

Every misdeed has its price, and Loki’s bill is settled all at once. After the death of Baldr and his merciless mockery at the gods’ feast, the Æsir seize the cunning one – and impose the cruellest punishment in all of mythology.

The Hunt for the Salmon

Loki knows his time is up. He flees into the mountains and builds himself a house with four doors, so he can peer out in every direction. By day he turns into a salmon and hides in the waterfall Fránangr. But out of sheer recklessness he himself invents the first fishing net – and, when the gods draw near, throws it into the fire. From the ashes they read off the pattern, knot the net anew and catch him. On his last leap Thor grabs the salmon by the tail – which, so the myth says, is why the salmon is so slender at the back.

The Binding over Three Stones

The gods’ revenge is terrible. They bring in Loki’s sons: Váli is turned into a wolf and tears apart his brother Narfi. With Narfi’s entrails, which turn to iron, the gods bind Loki over three upright stone slabs. Above his face the giantess Skadi hangs a venomous serpent, whose venom is to drip ceaselessly onto his countenance.

Sigyn’s Bowl and the Earthquakes

Yet Loki is not entirely alone. His faithful wife Sigyn stands beside him and holds up a bowl that catches the venom. Only when the bowl is full and she must turn away to empty it does a drop strike him. Then Loki writhes in such convulsions that the whole earth quakes – and so, the myth tells, earthquakes come to be. Thus he lies bound until, at Ragnarök, he tears himself free and marches against the gods.

“Bound lies Loki, yet faithful beside him
Sigyn holds the bowl – taking no joy in her husband.”
— after Völuspá / Gylfaginning (sense following Karl Simrock, 1851, public domain)

The end of the trickster god

After the death of the light god Baldr, which he had caused, and after his insults at the feast of the gods, the measure was full: the gods seized Loki and condemned him to one of the cruellest punishments of Norse mythology.

Bound with the entrails of his son

The gods turned Loki's son Vali into a wolf that tore apart his brother Narfi. With his entrails, which turned to iron, they bound Loki to three rocks deep in a cave. A punishment of horrific severity.

The serpent and the bowl

Above Loki hangs a serpent whose venom drips onto his face. His faithful wife Sigyn catches the venom in a bowl. But when she has to empty the full bowl, a drop hits Loki – and his writhing makes the earth quake.

Until the world's end

Thus Loki lies bound until Ragnarök. Then he tears himself free and leads the powers of chaos against the gods. His punishment is not an end but a tensed spring – the prelude to the downfall of the old world.

Read more with us

Loki · Sigyn – the Faithful · Lokasenna – the Flyting of the Gods · Baldr’s Death · Ragnarök.

Sources & literature

Poetic Edda: Völuspá, Lokasenna (prose ending). Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda (Gylfaginning: the catching of the salmon, the binding, Sigyn’s bowl), c. 1220. Picture stone: Gosforth Cross (England, 10th c.). German public-domain translation: Karl Simrock, Die Edda (1851). Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology (2001).

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