50 Fun Facts About Loki

In Norse myth, Loki turned himself into a mare and gave birth to which eight-legged horse?

Sleipnir is the eight-legged foal Loki bore in mare form after luring the stallion Svaðilfari away from the giant builder's work on Asgard's wall.

By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki fathered three monstrous children: Hel, the wolf Fenrir and which serpent?

Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, lies in the ocean encircling the world; in Útgarða-Loki's hall it was the 'cat' that Thor failed to lift.

After Loki is bound by the gods, his wife catches the dripping serpent venom in a bowl. What is her name?

Whenever she leaves to empty the bowl the venom hits Loki's face and he writhes in agony.

According to the myths, what natural phenomenon is caused by Loki writhing in pain under the venom?

Earthquakes: the Prose Edda says that when venom drips onto the bound Loki's face he shudders so violently that the whole earth shakes.

Which beloved god's death does Loki engineer in Norse mythology?

Baldr: Loki learned that Frigg had not made mistletoe swear the oath, then guided the blind god Höðr to throw the mistletoe dart that killed Baldr.

Which god is Loki foretold to kill, and be killed by, at Ragnarök?

Heimdallr: in Gylfaginning's account of Ragnarök, the freed Loki and the watchman god Heimdallr fight one another and each kills the other.

To hide from the gods after insulting them all at Ægir's feast, Loki turned himself into which animal?

A salmon: Loki hid in Fránangr's falls in salmon form; the gods rebuilt the net he had burned and Thor caught him by the tail as he leapt.

Which Poetic Edda poem consists almost entirely of Loki trading insults with the gods at a feast?

Lokasenna ('Loki's Flyting') has Loki crash Ægir's feast and insult each god in turn, accusing the goddesses of infidelity and taunting Frigg over her son's death.

In Þrymskviða, what does Loki borrow to search for Thor's stolen hammer?

Freyja's feather cloak: Loki borrows the goddess's fjaðrhamr to reach Jötunheimr, where Þrymr admits he has hidden Mjölnir and demands Freyja as his bride.

In the Prose Edda, Loki once cut off the hair of Thor's wife. Who was she?

Thor forced him to have dwarves make a golden replacement, a commission that also produced five other treasures for the gods.

What did the gods lose when Loki let a jötunn eagle abduct Iðunn from Asgard?

Their eternal youth: Iðunn's apples kept the gods young, so once Þjazi carried her off they began to grow old and grey until Loki, in falcon form, brought her back.

In Útgarða-Loki's hall, Loki lost an eating contest to a being named Logi, who turned out to be what?

Wildfire: Logi was fire itself, which consumed the meat, the bones and the trough alike, so Loki, who had only eaten the meat, lost the contest.

Loki is the son of Laufey and which jötunn?

Fárbauti, a jötunn whose name means 'cruel striker', is Loki's father; the poems call Loki 'son of Laufey' after his mother, a name Marvel later reused for his father.

What feature of a soapstone hearth stone found in Denmark in 1950 suggests it depicts Loki?

Scarred, stitched lips: the Snaptun Stone's face shows a mouth sewn shut, recalling Skáldskaparmál, where the dwarf Brokkr stitches Loki's lips after winning their wager.

Which 13th-century Icelandic writer compiled the Prose Edda, one of the main sources for Loki's myths?

Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) wrote the Prose Edda around 1220 as a handbook of poetics and myth; he also wrote Heimskringla, the sagas of the Norwegian kings.

Loki's byname Loptr is generally taken to link him with what?

Air: the byname Loptr is usually connected with Old Norse lopt, 'air' or 'sky' (compare English 'loft'), the name under which Loki appears in several Eddic poems.

During his flyting at Ægir's feast, Loki taunts Týr that Loki's son did what to him?

Fenrir bit off Týr's hand when the gods bound the wolf, and Týr shoots back that Loki has lost his wolf.

Which team of comic creators introduced Marvel's modern Loki as Thor's nemesis in 1962?

Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby introduced Loki in Journey into Mystery #85 (October 1962), two issues after Thor's own debut in #83.

A version of Loki first appeared in a 1949 Timely Comics title named after which goddess?

That Loki was bizarrely a member of the Olympian gods, sent back to the Underworld after Venus foiled him.

In Marvel Comics, Loki's schemes on Earth inadvertently lead to the formation of which team?

The Avengers: in Avengers #1 (1963) Loki frames the Hulk to lure Thor into a fight, and the heroes who answer the call band together as the Avengers.

After being killed in the Siege storyline, Loki was resurrected in what form?

A child: Loki returned as a young boy in Thor #617 (2010); Kieron Gillen's 'Kid Loki' later joined a team of young heroes and had Wiccan age him into a teenager.

In the 2016 miniseries Vote Loki, what does Loki run for?

US President: in Vote Loki (2016) Loki mounts a campaign for the White House, winning fans by promising to lie to them openly, until reporter Nisa Contreras exposes his schemes.

Which actor plays Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Tom Hiddleston has played Loki since Thor (2011); director Kenneth Branagh, who had worked with him on Ivanov and Wallander, invited him to audition, originally for Thor himself.

In Thor: Ragnarok's stage play about Loki's death, which star plays Loki?

Matt Damon cameos as the actor playing Loki in the Asgardian stage play about Loki's heroic death in Thor: Ragnarok, alongside Luke Hemsworth as Thor.

In the MCU, Loki was born a member of which race before Odin adopted him?

Frost Giants: Loki was the abandoned infant son of Jotunheim's king Laufey, carried back to Asgard after the war with the giants and glamoured to look Asgardian.

According to the MCU, under what alias did Loki once pull off a famous heist on Earth?

D. B. Cooper: the Loki series shows the 1971 skyjacking was Loki, who parachuted out with the ransom and was beamed up by the Bifrost, settling a bet he had lost to Thor.

In the 2012 team-up film, Loki opens a wormhole above Stark Tower to let in which alien army?

The Chitauri: the alien army Thanos's emissary the Other lent Loki; they pour through the portal over New York until Iron Man's nuke destroys their mothership and the portal is closed.

In which German city does Loki cause a distraction while Barton steals iridium in the 2012 film?

Stuttgart: while Barton raids the iridium vault, Loki disrupts a museum gala in Stuttgart, orders the crowd to kneel, and lets Captain America and Iron Man take him in.

Which S.H.I.E.L.D. agent does Loki kill aboard the Helicarrier?

Phil Coulson: Loki runs him through with the scepter aboard the Helicarrier; Fury uses his death to rally the team, and Coulson was later revived for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

At the end of Thor: The Dark World, Loki is revealed to be sitting on Asgard's throne disguised as whom?

He kept the real Odin under a spell on Earth, and Thor did not discover the ruse until Ragnarok, four years later.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Loki lands on the planet Sakaar and ingratiates himself with which ruler?

The Grandmaster: Loki charms Sakaar's ruler, Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster, for weeks before Thor even arrives; the Grandmaster stages the Contest of Champions in which Thor fights the Hulk.

What does Loki steal from Odin's vault as Asgard is destroyed, drawing Thanos to the refugees' ship?

The Tesseract: Loki pockets it from the vault as Surtur destroys Asgard; Thanos then boards the Statesman, crushes the cube to take the Space Stone, and kills Loki.

How does Thanos kill Loki at the start of Infinity War?

Snaps his neck: after Loki's last-ditch dagger thrust fails, Thanos lifts him by the throat and snaps his neck, telling Thor 'No resurrections this time'.

Loki's actor filmed scenes for which 2015 film, only for them to be cut from the theatrical release?

Age of Ultron: Loki's actor shot a brief cameo for Thor's cave-vision sequence in the 2015 film, but director Joss Whedon cut it before release.

Kenneth Branagh told Loki's actor to study which star in The Lion in Winter and Lawrence of Arabia?

Peter O'Toole: Branagh pointed his Loki to O'Toole's mercurial Henry II in The Lion in Winter and his Lawrence, and asked for 'a lean and hungry look, like Cassius', so the actor dieted.

The Disney+ series follows a Loki variant who slipped away with a stolen artifact during which film?

Avengers: Endgame: during the 2012 leg of the time heist, the Hulk's stairwell tantrum sends the cube skidding to the captive Loki, who vanishes with it and becomes the TVA's Variant L1130.

What do the letters TVA stand for in the Loki series?

Time Variance Authority: the TVA polices the Sacred Timeline by pruning branching 'variants'; it first appeared in Marvel's Thor comics in 1986 before the Disney+ series adapted it.

Which actor plays TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius?

Owen Wilson plays Mobius M. Mobius, the TVA analyst who recruits Loki; Wilson likened their cop-and-crook rapport to Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs.

What is the name of the female Loki variant, played by Sophia Di Martino, whom Loki hunts?

Sylvie: Sophia Di Martino's variant was seized by the TVA as a young girl and grew up hiding in apocalypses; she rejects the name Loki and goes by Sylvie instead.

Which veteran British actor played Classic Loki, the old variant who faked his death to escape Thanos?

Richard E. Grant plays Classic Loki, the aged variant in the comics' green-and-yellow costume; he dies in the Void conjuring a full-size illusion of Asgard to distract Alioth.

Which of these animal Loki variants was stranded in the Void in the series' first season?

An alligator: Alligator Loki, in a tiny horned helmet, shares the Void hideout with Kid Loki, Classic Loki and Boastful Loki, and was pruned for eating the wrong neighbour's cat.

Jonathan Majors played He Who Remains and which stuttering 1893 inventor in the Loki series?

Victor Timely: Majors's season-two variant is a stammering inventor hawking temporal gadgets at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair; like He Who Remains he is a variant of Kang the Conqueror.

Which Oscar-winning actor joined season two as O.B., the TVA's quirky repair guy?

Ke Huy Quan, fresh from his Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, plays Ouroboros ('O.B.'), the TVA engineer who wrote its handbook and keeps the Temporal Loom running.

How does the Loki series end for its title character?

He holds the timelines together at the End of Time: Loki shatters the Temporal Loom, gathers the dying branches into a tree-shaped multiverse and sits enthroned at the End of Time as its living anchor.

Where was the first season of Loki filmed?

Atlanta, Georgia: the first season shot at Pinewood Atlanta Studios (since renamed Trilith) in Georgia during 2020, with a pandemic pause; season two moved to Pinewood Studios near London.

Which voice actress plays Miss Minutes, the TVA's animated clock mascot, in Loki?

Tara Strong, the voice of Timmy Turner and Bubbles, gives Miss Minutes, the TVA's animated clock mascot, her cheerful Southern drawl.

In Reginsmál, Loki nets the dwarf Andvari, who is swimming in a waterfall in the form of what?

A pike: Andvari lived in a waterfall in pike form; Loki, needing gold to pay weregild for Otr, borrowed Rán's net, caught him and took his hoard including the ring Andvaranaut.

Modern Scandinavian forms of Loki's name point to a Germanic root *luk- denoting what?

Loops, knots and locks: the root *luk- survives in Swedish lockespindlar for certain spiders and Faroese lokkanet for a cobweb, tying the name to tangling and net-making.

In Lokasenna, which goddess fastens the venomous snake over the bound Loki's face?

Skaði: the poem's prose ending says Skaði hung a venomous snake above the bound Loki's face, revenge for his part in the death of her father Þjazi.

Loki taunts Odin in Lokasenna for practising seiðr, a type of sorcery, on which island?

Samsey, today's Samsø in Denmark: the jibe is Loki's answer to the Allfather's taunt that Loki spent eight winters underground as a milch-cow and a woman, and bore offspring.