What is this symbol Loki is holding ?

[Somniferia]

Hello folks,

I was wondering whether any of you might know what is the symbol Loki is holding in his hand on this picture :

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... M_loki.jpg

I had real life encounters with this symbol and I don't know exactly what it means... Possibly it appeared to me because I was in need of a more clever energy, or I have transcended something for a while, or maybe this symbol is universal low grade symbol of higher powers. Any insight would be appreciated.

Hail Loki, may you be released.

[Corwen]

The hand sign he makes with his right hand is the 'sign of benediction' used by Priests when they bless people or objects. His left hand appears to hold some sort of plant- though I am not sure what the grid behind him represents or why what he is holding seems to be joined to it. It could conceivably be a coil of leather thong or harness he is holding- perhaps the object behind him is a sledge or a ship. Maybe the text would help, and the rest of the image, but the source isn't given. Compare with this picture of Odin from the same era who holds coiled reins in his hand:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Odin_ ... eipnir.jpg

The reins look very similar to the mystery object Loki holds.

[Somniferia]

hmm, so Odin has this symbol as well. I think the main part of the symbol is the grid and it might represent an attempt to describe the creation, using a primitive math, which gives you a grid as a manifestation. Or maybe the symbol could be more specific, I don't know

Thanks

[DJ Droood]

hmm, so Odin has this symbol as well. I think the main part of the symbol is the grid and it might represent an attempt to describe the creation, using a primitive math, which gives you a grid as a manifestation. Or maybe the symbol could be more specific, I don't know

Thanks

The grid strikes me as being a fishing net.

And indeed, if your type "loki fishing net" into google images, that image pops up first, and this caption is beneath it:

This picture, from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript, shows Loki with his invention - the fishing net.

Read more: http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?t ... z1vmeK0UND

[DaRC]

Ermmm I think not (I am assuming you mean the object in his left hand)
- I think it's the fishing net that Kvasir recreated to catch Loki...

When the gods had become as wroth with him as was to be looked for, he ran off and hid himself in a certain mountain; there he made a house with four doors, so that he could see out of the house in all directions. Often throughout the day he turned himself into the likeness of a salmon and hid himself in the place called Fránangr-Falls; then he would ponder what manner of wile the gods would devise to take him in the water-fall. But when he sat in the house, he took twine of linen and knitted meshes as a net is made since; but a fire burned before him. Then he saw that the Æsir were close upon him; and Odin had seen from Hlidskjálf where he was. He leaped up at once and out into the river, but cast the net into the fire.

from
http://www.cybersamurai.net/Mythology/nordic_gods/LegendsSagas/Edda/ProseEdda/GylfaginningXLI-LIV.htm#gylf50
Once again Loki invents something that is of use the Aesir...

It's interesting that Loki is viewed as left (or as my family like to call it cack)-handed; only in-joking as my father and sister were left handed. The medieval drawing underlines his devilish nature in the christian era. Left handed was always related to unfavourable /bad energy e.g. we still have the word sinister which is rooted in the Latin for left.

[treegod]

What's the difference between a sumbol and an object in this context?

[DJ Droood]

What's the difference between a sumbol and an object in this context?

"Sometimes an Icelandic fishing net is just an Icelandic fishing net." Snorri Freud.

[illion]

I see the fishing net as a symbol of the wyrd or the destiny.

[Somniferia]

Then it could be a fishing net, I would agree on the destiny and wyrd as Illion said, but I would have to say that the net is also the symbol of death and shattering to the life of the animals it catches. Just to see it from the other point of view as well. We are not gods and yet the true nature sings for us a song of abusing and the note ends in nowhere near. And it's not like that even if we were gods of some kind that we could abuse nature so drastically as we now do. Poor human. But he is funny (not that it makes up for it)

Safe Journey...

[illion]

Oh, yes, the death and life thing...

I was just thinking that I forgot to write about life and death in the context of the fishing net symbol, but here it is

The sea goddess Ran also had a fishing net to catch the drowned ones and take them to her world.

[Corwen]

Ah the thing behind him is a net, wondered what it was, but just didn't see that!

[illion]

No, it is not so easy to see it because you focus on his hand and what's in it instead of seeing the whole picture. I didn't see it at once either.

[DaRC]

Another way to look at it - is that Loki is the architect of his own downfall.
He works out how to catch himself. There is a theme within the Norse / Germanic literature of being suspicious of clever people. "Too clever by half" is the modern quote.
Whilst stuck in his house of 4 doors Loki has time to think (perhaps too much?) & match wits with the Aesir and ultimately he outwits himself.

Another aspect to consider is the Pandora's box of Knowledge. Once's he's learnt how to create a net Loki can't destroy the evidence.
Within the Runes this is shown within Kenaz / Kaunaz. The Norwegian Rune poem has:

Carbuncle is the affliction of children;
misfortune makes a body pale.

In the modern world we tend to think of a carbuncle as just a boil or spot but the origin of the word is as a red jewel such as a ruby.
This shows the dichotomy of the Heathen worldview around knowledge as both a jewel and an ulcer.