#jormundgandr

(DISCLAIMER: I love Marvel, but this isn’t about them. Please kindly leave your Marvel-based prejudices at the door- thank you!)

Loki keeps getting pregnant.

For those who aren’t familiar with mythology Loki, he is more of a genderfluid figure who can shapeshift into different beings. One time he got pregnant as a female horse, producing Sleipnir. Another time, he ate a woman’s heart and gave birth to “all the various plagues and monstrosities on humankind.” Some say the giantess Angrboda birthed Jormungandr, Fenrir, and Hel, but other accounts claim Loki birthed them as well.

Regardless of the exact circumstances, Loki is actually a perfect fit for the “Mother of Monsters” mythological trope. The trope includes figures like Gaia and her Hechatonkeries, Echidna and Hydra/Lernaia/Khimaira, Tiamat from Mesopotamian myth, Lilith, Grendel’s mother, Apsu, Diti/Danu, the list goes on. Loki births terrors!

However, he interestingly also fits the role of the mother of the “Chosen One”. The chosen one’s parents have a horrible prophecy foretold about their kid (Ragnarok) and so the other gods who directly suffer from its fulfillment (Odin) curse/imprison them to prevent it (Jormungandr into the sea, Frenris in chains, Hel in the afterlife)…

Something similar happens with Krishna’s poor parents in Hindu myth, and with Perseus and his mother; Loki fits the misfortunate parent of the chosen one.

What makes Loki and his children os interesting, though, is that when their prophecy is fulfilled it is not in spite of the imprisonments, it is thanks to the imprisonments.

Frenrir is happy to play with his friend Tyr until the chains came out. Jormungandr was not gigantic until he was cast into the sea. When Ragnarok begins, Hel brings her army of the dead with her. Had Odin never shunned these three, perhaps Ragnarok could have been prevented.

So to answer the question, “Why does Loki keep getting pregnant?” I have to say: The man likes chaos, and his children being the downfall of the other gods is indirectly the funniest possible thing he could do since killing Baldur.

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Loki: If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.

Jormundgandr: What if it bites me and it dies?

Hel: Then it means you're poisonous. By the gods Jorm, learn to listen!

Fenris: What if it bites itself and I die?

Hel: That's voodoo

Jormundgandr: What if it bites me and someone else dies?

Hel: That's correlation, not causation.

Fenris: What if we bite each other and neither of us die?

Hel: ...

Loki: ...that's kinky