Study › Runes & Norse › Lokasenna
Lokasenna is the poem in which Loki insults every god at Aegir's feast. He wins the contest of insults, but when Thor arrives he flees, and the quarrel leads the gods to bind him until Ragnarok.
What is Lokasenna?
After the cauldron was brought, the gods gathered to feast in the hall of Aegir. Loki killed one of Aegir's servants out of spite and was driven out, but he came back, demanded a seat and a drink, and began, in the poem Lokasenna, to insult every god and goddess in turn.
Loki's insults
He mocks Bragi as a coward, accuses the goddesses of their lovers, taunts Tyr with the hand the wolf bit off, throws Odin's own practice of seidr back in his face, and even tells Frigg that he was the cause of Baldr's death. Each god answers him and each is answered worse. It is a flyting, a formal contest of insults, and Loki wins it.
How Lokasenna ends
Only when Thor arrives and threatens him with Mjollnir does Loki leave, cursing Aegir's hall with fire as he goes. He fled and hid in a river as a salmon, and this quarrel is what led the gods to catch him and bind him until Ragnarok.
It is told of Loki at the feast of Aegir.
Questions
What does Lokasenna mean?
"Loki's quarrel" or "Loki's flyting".
Who drives Loki out?
Thor, threatening him with Mjolnir.