100 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 the gods bind Loki, which goddess, his wife, catches the dripping serpent venom in a bowl?

Sigyn stays beside her bound husband holding the bowl, but each time she turns away to empty it 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 gods bound Loki with a son's entrails, and whenever the venom lands on his 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 the Prose Edda's Ragnarök the freed Loki and the gods' watchman kill each other, and only then does Surtr fling fire over the earth and burn the whole world.

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 which goddess, the wife of Thor?

Sif: Thor forced Loki to have dwarves make her new hair of real gold, a commission that also produced five other treasures for the gods, Thor's hammer among them.

What did the gods lose when Loki lured Iðunn out of Asgard for a jötunn in eagle form to carry off?

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.

Marvel's films make Laufey Loki's father, but who is Laufey to Loki in the Norse myths?

His mother: the Eddas call him Loki Laufeyjarson, naming him after his mother rather than his jötunn father Fárbauti, the reverse of the usual Norse custom.

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 wrote the Prose Edda as a handbook on poetics, retelling the myths behind the skalds' ornate diction; in 1241 he was assassinated at home on the orders of Norway's King Haakon.

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

Air: Loptr is usually derived from Old Norse lopt, 'air' or 'sky', the same word English borrowed as 'loft', which is why a lofted ball is one sent high into the air.

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

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

Which artist drew Loki's modern Marvel debut in 1962, in a story by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber?

Jack Kirby pencilled Journey into Mystery #85, where Loki escapes the tree he was trapped in by tricking a passing god into shedding a tear, the one thing that could free him.

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 Marvel's 2016 election satire Loki runs for the White House promising to lie right to voters' faces, while reporter Nisa Contreras sets out to prove his duplicity.

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 plays the Asgardian actor cast as Loki, opposite Luke Hemsworth's stage Thor; Chris Hemsworth, a friend, recruited him, and Damon flew in just to shoot the gag.

In the MCU, Loki was born a member of which race before being raised as a prince of Asgard?

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, the supposedly dead Loki is revealed to be disguised as whom?

Odin: Loki had quietly taken the throne in his adoptive father's shape, keeping the real Odin under a spell on Earth, and Thor uncovered the ruse only in Ragnarok.

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 Asgard's vault as the realm 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 cameo for the 2015 film, but it was cut, he later said, because test audiences assumed his presence meant Loki was controlling Ultron.

Kenneth Branagh told Loki's actor to study which Lawrence of Arabia star?

Peter O'Toole: Branagh pointed his Loki to O'Toole's raw, damaged Henry II in The Lion in Winter, and on set he would ask for 'the Peter O'Toole take' of a scene, then a Clint Eastwood one.

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 prunes timelines that branch from its Sacred Timeline; in the comics its staff were drawn as clones of Marvel editor Mark Gruenwald, the company's continuity expert.

Which actor plays TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius?

Owen Wilson plays Mobius M. Mobius, the TVA analyst who saves the captured Loki from being 'reset' so he can help hunt a variant of himself who has been killing TVA officers.

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: as a boy he was secretly left a TVA handbook, and by the 1893 Chicago World's Fair this variant of He Who Remains was selling inventions built on its designs.

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; in his original life he was A.D. Doug, a Caltech physics teacher and unsuccessful science-fiction author.

How does the Loki series end for its title character?

Holding the timelines together: Loki destroys the Temporal Loom, revives the dying branches as a tree-shaped multiverse and stays alone at the End of Time as the centre that keeps it alive.

Where was the first season of Loki filmed?

Atlanta, Georgia: the first season shot at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, halting from March to September 2020 for the pandemic, while season two moved to Pinewood Studios in England.

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

Tara Strong gives Miss Minutes her Southern drawl; the cheery clock turns out to be an AI built by He Who Remains, with whom she is in love.

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 are now thought to point to a Germanic root *luk- denoting what?

Loops, knots and locks: on this reading Loki is a tangler, a sense that survives in Swedish lockespindlar for spiders and Faroese lokkanet for a cobweb, and suits the god said to have made the first fishing net.

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

Skaði: the poem's closing prose has her hang the snake over Loki, soon after he boasts to her face that he was first and last at the killing of her father Þjazi.

Loki Patera, a vast lava lake named after the Norse trickster, lies on which moon of Jupiter?

Io: Loki Patera is a lava lake about 200 km across; its cooled crust is thought to sink in waves that sweep slowly across the lake, exposing fresh lava and making it brighten and dim.

In the Loki series, which mighty confiscated objects do TVA office staff use as paperweights?

Infinity Stones do not work inside the TVA, a twist written to show Loki that the bureaucracy, not the gems, is the real power in the universe.

In the 2012 Marvel team-up film, which hero beats Loki into submission inside Stark Tower?

Hulk's beating is how the invasion of New York ends for Loki, who is then arrested and taken back to Asgard as a prisoner.

In Thor: Ragnarok, which sorcerer traps Loki inside a portal for being a threat to Earth?

Doctor Strange keeps Loki falling out of sight while he talks to Thor, then drops him into the New York Sanctum and sends both brothers on to Norway.

In Loki season one, which Roman city do Loki and Mobius visit just before Vesuvius destroys it?

Pompeii proves Loki's theory that a fugitive can hide inside a doomed event, where nothing he does can change history; he warns the locals about the eruption and it makes no difference.

Loki's wager with the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Eitri led to the forging of which famous weapon?

Mjölnir came out of the forge with a handle that was too short, because a fly bit one of the dwarfs on the eyelid at the crucial moment.

In Norse myth, Loki guides the blind god Höðr into hurling a weapon made from which plant?

Mistletoe was the only thing that had sworn no oath to spare the gods' favourite son, having seemed too slight or too young to be asked.

Which 1994 Jim Carrey comedy centres on a green-faced trickster created by an artifact of Loki?

The Mask turns a timid bank teller into a cartoonish trickster, and a psychiatrist in the film deduces that the wooden face may be a creation of Loki.

In Loki season two, which fast-food chain employs Loki's female variant in 1982 Oklahoma?

McDonald's first appears in a mid-credits scene, when she walks into a branch in a small Oklahoma town; Loki and Mobius later find her working behind the counter.

In Loki season two, Mobius turns out to be a variant of Don, a single parent who sells what?

Jet skis are what Don sells in the life the TVA took Mobius from, a life raising two kids that Mobius chooses to watch from afar once he retires.

Which actress plays Hela, the goddess of death who seizes Asgard's throne in Thor: Ragnarok?

Cate Blanchett's Hela is written as Thor's older sister, whereas the Norse sources she is based on call Hel a daughter of Loki.

In the 2012 Marvel team-up film, which future hero does Loki brainwash with his scepter?

Hawkeye serves Loki as an enforcer, even stealing the iridium his master needs, until Black Widow subdues him and breaks the scepter's grip.

In Thor (2011), which enchanted automaton does Loki send to a New Mexico town to kill his brother?

The Destroyer leaves Thor on the verge of death, but that sacrifice is what makes him worthy again, and his restored powers defeat the machine.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Loki places a crown in a magic flame to revive which fire demon?

Surtur is beaten by Thor in the film's opening scene, then deliberately reborn at the end to destroy Asgard and take Hela down with it.

In Thor: The Dark World, Loki appears to die while killing which monstrous Dark Elf lieutenant?

Kurse is the transformed form of Algrim, Malekith's loyal lieutenant, and Loki's apparent death in that fight turns out to be one more trick.

In the Marvel films, which Asgardian queen, played by Rene Russo, taught Loki how to use magic?

Frigga is the adoptive parent Loki stayed close to, and her murder by the Dark Elves is what persuades him to fight beside Thor in the second film.

Before Thor, Loki's actor worked with director Kenneth Branagh on which British detective drama?

Wallander cast him as a young detective, and Branagh, who also knew him from the stage play Ivanov, then invited him to audition for the Marvel film.

Loki's MCU actor won a Golden Globe for playing Jonathan Pine in which John le Carré adaptation?

The Night Manager is a BBC One series he also executive produced, and it brought him two Emmy nominations as well as the Golden Globe.

In Loki season two, Loki and Mobius track Miss Minutes to which city's 1893 World's Fair?

Chicago's fair includes a diorama of Norse gods that leaves Loki out, a joke on viewers who expect to see his statue standing beside his brother's.

In the Loki series, what act created the Nexus event that made Kid Loki a wanted variant?

Kid Loki killed Thor as a boy, and the young variant goes on to style himself king of the Void, the wasteland where pruned variants end up.

In Loki season one, the Time-Keepers who supposedly created the TVA are revealed to be what?

Androids is the truth that comes out when one Time-Keeper is beheaded in a fight, proving that someone else has been running the TVA all along.

In Loki season one, which cloud-like creature hunts and devours everything sent to the Void?

Alioth turns out to be a guard dog: He Who Remains used the creature to wipe out rival realities, and it hides the way to his citadel.

In Loki season one, on which doomed moon are Loki and his female variant stranded in 2077?

Lamentis-1 is where the two variants, expecting to be crushed by a falling planet, form the bond that creates a new branch and gives them away to the TVA.

What does Loki season two call the condition that drags Loki uncontrollably between past and future?

Time slipping stops being a curse once Loki learns to steer it by focusing on a person, which lets him go back and face the same crisis again.

In Loki season two, which TVA machine is dangerously overloaded by all the new branches of time?

The Temporal Loom cannot be reached for repairs without the aura of He Who Remains, which sends the TVA hunting for one of his variants.

O.B., the technician who wrote the TVA Handbook in the Loki series, goes by which full name?

Ouroboros is also the title of the second season's opening episode, and the character ends the series writing a new edition of the handbook.

In the Loki series, which handheld device do TVA agents use to open doors through time and space?

A TemPad running out of power is what strands Loki and his fellow fugitive on a dying moon in season one, with no door home.

Which filmmaker directed the first season of Loki after making episodes of Netflix's Sex Education?

Kate Herron also executive produced the season, and pushed for the title character's bisexuality to be acknowledged on screen.

Which actress plays Ravonna Renslayer, the TVA judge who oversees the hunt for Loki's variant?

Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Renslayer rose from Hunter A-23 to judge, and the series gives the character an origin that predates her comic-book appearances.

Which eerie-sounding instrument did composer Natalie Holt build the Loki series' score around?

The theremin, played by Charlie Draper, was blended with an orchestra, analog synthesizers, clock sounds and Scandinavian folk instruments.

Which episode title does the Loki series use for both its first episode and its finale?

Glorious Purpose opened the series in June 2021 and came back as the title of the second season's sixth and last episode in November 2023.

In Þrymskviða, Thor wins back his stolen hammer disguised as what, with Loki as his handmaiden?

A bride was the price the giant Þrymr set for the hammer, and when the goddess he demanded flatly refused, the gods sent Thor in a wedding dress instead.

In the Prose Edda, the gods bind Loki across three rocks using what, which then turns to iron?

His son's entrails became the bonds after the gods turned one of Loki's sons into a wolf, which then ripped its own brother apart.

Gleipnir, the ribbon that held Loki's son Fenrir, was made from a woman's beard and which sound?

A cat's footsteps joined the roots of mountains, the breath of fish and the spittle of birds in the recipe, which is said to be why none of them can be found in the world.

In the Prose Edda, Loki's daughter Hel is cast into which realm to rule over the departed?

Niflheim is where Hel must give board and lodging to those who die of sickness or old age, with power over nine worlds.

Naglfar, the ship foretold to carry Loki and a horde of enemies to Ragnarök, is built from what?

Dead men's nails, from both fingers and toes, make up the whole vessel, and a seeress in the poem Völuspá foretells the day it breaks loose on rising waters.

To rescue Iðunn from the giant Þjazi, Loki flew off as a falcon and turned her into what?

A nut clutched in his claws got her home, but Þjazi flew after him as an eagle and plunged into a fire at Asgard, where the gods fell on him.

Loki seized the dwarf Andvari's hoard, including which cursed object later won by Sigurd?

A ring named Andvaranaut carried the dwarf's curse to each new owner, and the cursed ring of Wagner's four-opera cycle is modelled on it.

Which god, known as the silent one, is foretold to kill Loki's wolf son Fenrir at Ragnarök?

Víðarr drives a sword into the wolf's heart in the poem Völuspá to avenge the chief of the gods, and is foretold to come through the battle unharmed.

The Gosforth Cross, a Viking-age carving thought to show the bound Loki, stands in which country?

England's Cumbrian coast was settled by Scandinavians in the 9th or 10th century, and a second bound figure survives in a church at Kirkby Stephen, elsewhere in Cumbria.

In Scandinavian folklore, which bright star has been known as Lokabrenna, or Loki's torch?

Sirius is almost twice as bright as the next brightest star, and its Scandinavian name can also be read as the burning done by Loki.

Marvel bills Loki, Thor's scheming adoptive brother, as the Asgardian God of what?

Mischief was only the beginning: in the comics his talent for pranks earned him the nickname before the tricks hardened into malice and a hunger for power.

Marvel's modern Loki debuted as Thor's sworn enemy in issue 85 of which comic series?

Journey into Mystery later lent its name to the fifth episode of the Loki series, and from issue 622 the comic itself was refocused on Loki.

At the end of Marvel's Loki: Agent of Asgard comics, Loki returns claiming to be the God of what?

Stories replaced lies as his domain: he reappears at a friend's door eight months later, just as the sky turns red before Secret Wars.

In the Marvel comics, Loki once used the Twilight Sword to transform Thor into which animal?

A frog Thor known as Throg later turns up among the cast-offs of the Void in the Loki series, with an uncredited voice cameo by Chris Hemsworth.

In Norse myth Laufey is Loki's mother, but what relation is Laufey to Loki in Marvel's version?

His father in Marvel is Laufey, a king of Jotunheim, who hid his undersized son out of shame until Asgard's ruler found the baby.

The Marvel comics character Mobius M. Mobius was drawn to resemble which real-life Marvel editor?

Mark Gruenwald was Marvel's continuity expert, so the TVA's staff were drawn as his clones, an in-joke about the man who helped classify its alternate realities.

In Wagner's Nibelung operas, Loki appears under which name as a cunning helper to Wotan?

Loge helps Wotan and the other gods but thinks them greedy, because they refuse to return the Rhine Gold to its rightful owners.

Loki Patera, a lava lake named after the trickster god, lies on Io, a moon of which planet?

Jupiter's moon Io is home to the 202-kilometre depression, its largest volcano, which alone produces about 10% of the moon's total heat output.

In the 2018 video game God of War, which character turns out to have been called Loki by his mother?

Atreus, the young son of Kratos, was known as Loki to his late mother and to the Giants, a twist the game saves for its final scenes.

In Rick Riordan's Gods of Asgard books, which hero's Uncle Randolph sets the bound Loki free?

Magnus Chase sees his uncle succeed during a giant's wedding, despite the efforts of Alex Fierro, who is one of the trickster's own offspring.