Loki: The Biggest Trap in Norse Mythology
Loki is one of the most interesting characters not only in Norse mythology but in any mythology in general. He really took all the spotlight wherever he went. Because not a single second passed without a cunning idea to trick people popping up in his mind.
Loki is a mystery that we can never see through him, just like Odin the Allfather. The more we try to understand Loki, the more times we find out we have no idea of what this character was supposed to do. And that's what makes both Loki and Odin special. Loki was, is, and will always be the best embodiment of life pitfalls from Norse mythology.
The word "Loki" originated from an old Norwegian word meaning "chain" or "lock".It somewhat reflects the qualities that Loki embodied through mythology. He was the chain, he was the lock, he was the key, he was the reason, and he was also the solution to everything befalling Norse cosmos.
He entrapped people
As mentioned above, wherever Loki appeared, he left nothing but trouble to the people around him. He annoyed people, even Odin and Thor. He caused a trap for each character in Norse mythology and pushed them to fall into the trap. And he would stand there offering his hand to help them out.
For what? Loki truly wanted to feel a sense of being a hero.
The best example for this was the time Loki cut off the beautiful hair of Sif. He did it and he knew exactly what he planned to do: sneaking into Sif's room while she was sleeping and cutting off the most beautiful hair of Sif. Loki really pissed Thor off because Sif was the bride of Thor.
But also, Loki also offered to compensate for what he had done. He traveled to Svartalfheim to find the dwarves and ask them to make some treasure. And he did manage to bring back Asgard with many treasures including the Mjolnir hammer of Thor, Gungnir spear of Odin, etc. So we can say that it was Loki who brought the most powerful weapons to the gods.
Indeed, Loki entrapped people in every piece of Norse mythology.
He entrapped himself
But Loki was also trapped, both physically and mentally. I love to talk about Loki and what Loki had to endure in the whole course of Norse mythology.
First, in the physcial aspects, Loki had to endure the most painful torture in Norse mythology for his murder of Baldur the son of Odin. Yes, Loki did murder Baldur the Shining God of Asgard. He must have known that he would never get slip of what he had done as how could Odin spare for the murderer of his beloved son? Loki was bound to the rock and a snake dripped venom onto his face which caused him in extreme pain. He was trapped inside the rock physically.
Regarding the mental aspect, Loki was trapped with envy and overwhelming desire to be accepted. He was different from the rest in Asgard. Loki never thought of leave out all the rest. Instead, he wanted to live among them being one of them. But he could never achieve it because Asgard never belonged to a giant. It was the land of the gods while Loki came from Jotunheim the land for the giant. The desire to be accepted was so great that he was haunted every day. Everything Loki did was because of the fear of being ruled out from the community. He endured this fear and none could understand his pain. It grew up everyday and finally climaxed one day when Loki had to make an echo - killing Baldur.
He was also trapped with envy. He was jealous of what Odin and the gods had: respect, acceptance, admiration, etc. Loki must have lived like a shadow in Asgard. He envied everyone in Asgard. No matter how much he tried, he could never rival a god in Asgard. Loki wanted to have great children like Odin had. Thor Odinson was the most powerful god in Asgard, Baldur Odinson was loved by everyone, etc. But Loki's children were wolves, serpant, horse, etc. No matter how much he tried to prove himself, he failed. Envy consumed his mind and manipulated his actions. Things piled up day by day and it finally pushed Loki to make the final decision - to destroy.
Conclusion
After all, Loki was the best Norse embodiment of trap: physcially and mentally. Even the only daughter of Loki, Hel, was the ultimate trap of life - death. Everything revolving around Loki was just trap, trap, and trap.
