A New Perspective on Loki

Loki, is He a God or a giant? The scholars argue that the Eddas appear to be ambiguous about this. My argument is that His status is no less ambiguous than many of the other major Germanic deities. We know that his father was Farbauti[ON `dangerous hitter`], a giant. The etymology of Farbauti`s name is associated with lightening or the storm[See Rudolf Simek`s Dictionary of Northern Mythology]. His mother was Laufey[ON `leaf island`-a rather incredulous interpretation]. Her alternative or additional name was Nal[ON `needle`] because she was so slender and nimble. Simek suggests that Laufey may have been a tree Goddess. She is generally considered to be a Goddess and listed as such in the Eddas and we have no reason therefore to doubt that She was one. The Eddas are replete with stories of matings between Gods or Goddesses with giants and the giants should be considered as an earlier race of Gods which the Aesir and Vanir displaced. Wodan Himself was of giant parentage via His mother Bestla, a frost giantess. Thus we may conclude that Loki had as much Aesir blood flowing through His veins as Wodan, the chief of the Gods Himself. However Loki`s attitude towards the Gods is ambivalent. Early on in the mythology He is portrayed as a positive member of the Aesir, often coming to their aid in times of crisis. It is only with the beginning of Ragnarok and the events that precede it that we see a markedly different side to Loki. Causing the death of Baldur and preventing His early release from Hel and His slandering of the Gods in the Lokasenna He hastens on Ragnarok and shows Himself as an apparent enemy of the Gods. That is how people superficially see Loki`s role. However like life He is more complex than that and in my opinion He should be viewed as being the Shadow of Wodan. Loki and Wodan are blood brothers and often journeyed together in Midgard. There is some suspicion that He is in fact the God Lodur who along with Wodan and Hoenir gave life to man. Both Wodan and Loki are half giant in extraction but Loki as Wodan`s Shadow has his giant inheritance from His mother`s and not His father`s side. Usually it was the Gods who mated with giantesses and not the other way around. My inkling is that Laufey may have been raped by Farbauti and hence the apparent shame and lack of identification with the father. This may account for why some are tempted to see him more in the light of being a giant than a God. Curiously He is named after His mother, not His father for in the Eddas He is referred to as Loki Laufeyjarson. Perhaps He was anxious to bury his giant heritage, maybe even ashamed of it for the reason stated above? Scholars point out that there is no evidence for any cults of Loki in the pre-christian past. However this betrays their lack of understanding of His role. If Loki is Wodan`s Shadow then it is unlikely that we would expect to see any such evidence for the common people were highly unlikely to worship such an apparently negative deity. Additionally as Wodan`s Shadow He in effect IS Wodan, His darker and seemingly more destructive side. However it is the Loki side of Wodan`s personality which grants the All Father such naked intelligence, cunning and at times seeming duplicity. Loki is a catalyst, an agent of change and transformation. Whilst He is responsible for hastening on Ragnarok He was not responsible for the loss of the Golden Age. In His seeming `evil` deeds He is in fact providing a solution to the Wolf Age in which we find ourselves in. Through His actions the new Golden Age will arise after Ragnarok. He is the ultimate problem solver but His motives are not always clear. Loki represents the ultimate Left-Hand Path Germanic God. He stands alone. He is independent. He cares not for worship, adulation or approval. There is no consensus over the etymology of Loki`s name and this does not surprise me for there is no consensus at all about Loki who is the ultimate enigmatic God. My interpretation of His name is one that suggests `light`. I am reminded of Lucifer[an Aryan not a Semitic name] who shares a similar personality and name. It is likely that Loki derives from the PIE word *leuk. George William Cox in his The Mythology of the Aryan Nations volume II states: "The name Loki, like that of the Latin Vulcanus, denotes the light or blaze of fire, and in such phrases as Locke dricker vand, Loki drinks water, described the phenomena of the sun drinking when its light streams in shafts from the cloud rifts to the earth or the waters beneath. The word thus carries us to the old verb liuhan, the Latin lucere, to shine, and to Logi as its earlier form, the modern German lohe, glow; but as the Greek tradition referred the name Oidipous......., to know and to swell, so a supposed connexion with the verb lukan, to shut or lock, substituted the name Loki for Logi, and modified his character accordingly." The Eddas know of an Utgard-Loki and a Logi, a fire giant. Wagner in his Das Reheingold conflates the two characters of Loki and Logi together in the form of Loge and it would appear that there may be good grounds for doing so. It is interesting to note that the Old Norse equivalent of Saturday is Laugardagr, the Swedish logerdag and the Danish loverdag. Clearly originally before the pernicious influence of christianity Loki had a much more revered role in the Germanic pantheon but like many of the Gods He was demonised and this demonisation continues amongst many modern day `Asatru`. We need to view Him as the Germanic Prometheus who has brought the light of intelligence to man rather than the christian imposed idea of being a `devil`.

Irmin, Arminius and the Herminones

Tacitus states in his Germania 2.2 "In ancient lays, their only type of historical tradition, they celebrate Tuisto, a god brought forth from the earth. They attribute to him a son, Mannus, the source and founder of their people, and to Mannus three sons, from whose names those nearest the Ocean are called Ingvaeones, those in the middle Herminones, and the rest Istvaeones." I have previously discussed the connection between the God Ing and the Ingvaones and his mythical position as father of the English-Inglish-the sons of Ing. Now I would like to explore the relationship between the Herminones and the mysterious God Irmin. The Herminones or Irminones consisted of tribes such as the Hermunduri, Chatti, Cherusci, Alamanni, Suebi, Marcomanni, Quadi, Saxons and the Boii. We know that the ancient Teutons regarded themselves as being not just the creation of the Gods but their very own flesh and blood offspring. Therefore it was natural for them to name themselves after their perceived mythical ancestor. Whilst many scholars doubt the existence of a God Irmin[see Rudolf Simek`s entries for Irmin and Irminsul in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology there are many who consider Irmin to have been a very real mythical deity and quite possibly a deified human being as well. I very much doubt that the ancient Teutons would have erected their Irmin columns and called them `huge` pillars just on the basis of their size. We know that originally the Gods were portrayed as poles and worshiped as such so I do not see why the Irminsul should be an exception to the rule. Many of us speculate that the name of Irmin is to be found in one of the three great tribal divisions of our people-the Herminones or Irminones. Like the Ingvaeones who derive from Ing and the Istavones or Iscaevones who descend from Ask[Jacob Grimm] or Escio[Nennius]the Herminones are the children of the God Irmin whose human incarnation was Arminius or Hermann the Cheruscer who rescued his people and the bulk of northern and central Germania from Roman invasion by inflicting a catastrophic defeat upon them in the region of the Teutoburger Wald[9CE]. Irmin, Hermann and Arminius are all variants of the same name which has its cognates in Celtic-Eremon and Ariomannus and Indo-Aryan Aryaman and Iranian Airyaman. What could be more natural that a huge pole or pillar be errected to this ancestral God and that it be called the Irminsul-the column of Irmin? The Royal Frankish Annals[772CE] refer to the destruction of the Irminsul by Charlemagne during the Saxon wars. The Irminsul represented the centre of the pre-christian Germanic religion. The Irminsul was reported as being situated no far from Heresburg[Eresburg] now known as Obermarsberg. Like Saxnot and Tyr/Tiu Irmin was a sword God, a martial God who protected His people. There are also connections between the Irminsul and the sacred Externsteine and today one can see a portrayal of a fallen Irminsul carved into the rocks. I do not wish to discuss the Irminsul in any greater detail in this article as I intend to dedicate a future one soley to this remarkable symbol. My reference to it is purely in the context of supporting my contention that Irmin was an actual deity and recognised as such by our Folk.

The Gar Man/Ger Man

There are several interpretations of the etymology of the name German but one of the most if not THE most interesting is the following.
We know that the most ancient weapon of the pre-christian Germanic peoples was the spear. This was the weapon of choice and probably one of the easiest and cheapest to manufacture. It was the outward symbol of the Germanic Freeman who had come to maturity and acknowledgement within the clan through the slaying of a wild beast. It is a symbol of Germanic manhood and strength.
It is also the THE symbol of the Germanic God Wodan. His spear, Gungnir was inscribed with 17 runes on the spear head. It was a symbol of His power and lordship. Like the axe it one of the great symbols of our Folk.
The 33rd rune of the Anglo-Northumbrian Futhorc[incorrectly termed the Anglo-Saxon] is Gar. It represents the spear of Wodan. It is not or should not be regarded as the final rune of the fourth Aett but more correctly as the central rune around which all the others radiate for it is His rune and He is the centre of all things for He is the All-Father Wodan.
It has been interpreted by Wodens Folk as the "gift of Ing", Ing being the ancestral God of the English or Inglish Folk. The rune consists of a combination of Gebo or Gyfu and Ingwaz or Ing. However the Elder Futharc version of Gebo is more stylistically represented in Gar than the Anglo-Northumbrian version.
Gar is the beginning and end of a magical working and has the power to seal the magician`s intent.
The name German may thus have its etymology in the term ger-manni-people of the spear. Gar or Ger is Proto Germanic for `spear`. When confronting the Roman legions this may be an appelation that the Romans used to distinguish the Germanic peoples from their Celtic neighbours. The term as I have said does have other connotations which I intend to explore in further articles.
My recent article The Sacred Spears of the Germanic Priest-Kings posted on my Die Armanenschaft der Ariogermanen blog explores the use of the spear by the Germanic priest-kings.

The Sacred Spears of the Germanic Priest-Kings

During the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century a number of sacred spears belonging to the pre-christian Germanic tribes were located in modern day Germany, Sweden and Poland, being the Kovel spear, the Dahmsdorf spear, the Rozwadow spear and the Moos spear.
What these spears have in common is their construction-Iron with silver inlay and their runic inscriptions.
The one from Dahmsdorf has the inscription Ansuz-Jera-Nauthiz-Ansuz-Raitho. The inscription reading from right to left says ranja, ie the "runner". Edred Thorsson in his The Mysteries of the Goths speculates that this has the meaning of "the one which causes[them] to flee". The owner of the spear may have been a Burgundian, originally an East Germanic tribe.
It dates from around 250CE and it also contains solar and lunar symbols and was discovered in 1865 during the construction of a train station at Dahmsdorf-Muecheberg.
This and the other spears were never used in combat and clearly were of ceremonial purpose. Either these spears belonged to tribal priests or were symbolic totems of regal power belonging to chieftains.
The spear was the original and favoured weapon of the Germanic peoples and every Germanic freeman, every warrior possessed one as a mark of his status. In the case of chieftains and priests these were obviously more elaborate as these spears clearly have a mystical purpose.
We are of course reminded of Gungnir, the spear of Wotan/Wodan/Woden/Odin which likewise was according to Sigdrifumal 17 insricribed with 17 runes on its tip. It would of course be tempting to speculate what they are. It is of course possible that this may be a version of the normally 16 runes Younger Futhark.
It contains a Triskelion and a Swastika, both of which are solar symbols. These spears also contain tamgas which are Sarmatian or Scythian tribal symbols and thus show a connection with the steppe dwelling Iranian tribes who lived close to the East Germanic peoples.
The Germanic peoples considered themselves to be the offspring of their Gods and nobles in particular often reckoned their descent from Wodan. Therefore it is natural for a Germanic chieftain or king to possess a sacred spear as a symbol of the Wodan given regal power.
Later in the post-conversion times and the arising of the Parsifal myth the sacred spear or lance features as the symbolic weapon of the Grail king.
We know that the Holy Lance or spear of Longinus which allegedly currently resides in the Hofburg Museum in Wien has been dated to no earlier than the 7th century CE and therefore is not contemporary with the times of the so-called Christ.
No doubt this spear falls into a similar category as the four runic spears referred to in this article.
My readers may wish to also study my article from 12/5/12 on Die Armanschaft Der Ario-Germanen blog-Gungnir, Symbol of All-Father Woden and its Significance and also from 5/10/08 on my Celto-Germanic blog: Gungnir, the Spear of Odin.