Loki in Myth

Loki (Loptr) orginally came from the norse mythology as the son of a female giant named Laufey and a storm giant called Farbauti. He has 2 siblings Helblindi and Býleistr.

He was named Loptr because he was so small. It means air puff. Of cause he

didn´t like that - so his mother only called him by Loki.

Angrboda was his first woman, she was also a giant and in the nights he spent with her their children Hel, later the goddess of the Underworld, her body was half white and half black, the wolf Fenrir, later known as the worlds devourer, and Jörmungandr the serpent the giant snake were created.

In Asgard he disguised himself as a mare and got pregnant with Sleipnir, a eight legged horse.

Later he married Sigyn and they also had 2 children Narfi and Nari.

Loki's relation with the gods varies by source. Loki sometimes assists the gods and sometimes causes problems for them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon, mare, seal, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman. Loki's positive relations with the gods end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr. Loki is eventually bound by the gods with the entrails of one of his sons.

In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him while he is bound. The serpent drips venom from above him that Sigyn collects into a bowl; however, she must empty the bowl when it is full, and the venom that drips in the meantime causes Loki to writhe in pain, thereby causing earthquakes. With the onset of Ragnarök, 

Loki is foretold to slip free from his bonds and to fight against the gods among the forces of the Jötnar, at which time he will encounter the god Heimdall and the two will slay each other.

One of his greatest mysteries of him is the poem of the woman heart:

Loki ate some of the heart, the thought-stone of a woman,

roasted on a linden-wood fire, he found it half-cooked;

Lopt was impregnated by a wicked woman, from whom every ogress on earth is descended.

(Just like in christian mythology a woman is the reason for every ogress on earth)

Let me mark here that Island was already christianised as this was written down. And there are a lot of discusions of Loki being created by christians as a satanic figure or him being written into absolute evilness. And it´s impossible to say which Storys were written into the Edda. But it seems unlikely that the people who lived this - sacrificed their first bite of food into their fireplace in their homes as a gift to Loki - if they despised him. 

He is most likely a mirror figure of the greek god Prometheus. He brought the fire to the people and has to pay for it. I even think of Ragnarok as a image of the christian armageddon. And most likely a false one. Cause christians like the sinner to pay for their sins and wrongs with their death in the end. But this doesn´t make any sense how could the end of all things have come and written down while we´re still sitting here. And if it hadn´t happen yet - how will they know ? 

And that means in the end ... the gods have never left.