Loki is the Norse god best known for his mischievous tricks and cunning deceptions.
In the Prose Edda, Loki is described as clever, unpredictable, and skilled at devising tricks that can serve many purposes. His schemes frequently get the Æsir into trouble, but his quick thinking sometimes helps resolve the very problems he created. This makes him more than a simple prankster: Loki is a shapeshifter and a disruptive force whose actions can produce both comic and disastrous results.
His myths include transforming into animals, helping obtain divine treasures, and giving birth, in the form of a mare, to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Loki is also associated with the deaths of Baldr and the punishment that follows, when the gods bind him beneath a venomous serpent.
Modern fiction often portrays Loki as a straightforward villain or Odin’s adopted son. In the older Norse sources, his relationships are more complicated. He is counted among the Æsir in some contexts, yet is the son of the jötunn Fárbauti and Laufey, and he fathers several beings who become enemies of the gods. His trickster identity is therefore the canonical answer, but his character is morally and mythologically complex.