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142 EELIGION OF THE NOETHMEN.
of Evil among both Gods and men. This being has
evidently a physical and a moral significance, namely
: Fire, and Sin or Sinful desire. The name
Loki (the Enticer, Dan. Lokker ; cognate with lokka,
.Dan. lokke, to allure, enti-ce) refers to the latter
meaning, though its affinity to logi, flame, is unmistakable.
To the former meaning his other names
Lodun and Loptr refer, the one designating him. in
the character of the blazing and heating earthly
fire, the othe: in that of the Unsteady air.* liTothing
was more aatural than to conceive of the being who
ruled ovei ;he sometimes enlivening and sometimes
devouring Fu'e, as a mingled character, hovering
between good and evil powers—between the JE&\v
and the Jotuns ; and in this character is again ex-
pressed bis significance in a-moral point of view.
He steps forth in the ancient mythologic legends as
the wheedling seducer whose beautiful and animated
exterior conceals a malignant soul, and whose
smooth tongue is full of lies and slander.
There is, moreover, a distinction made in the
Later Edda between two beings of this name, viz.
Loki and UtgarSa-Loki— ^the Loki of the Outer-ward
* The name, it is true, comes most directly from loka oi- Iiika,
to lock, to close, to conclude {Dan. lulcke: M.-6olh. lukar • A.-S.
lucan), and it, is remarkable thai, we find an 'jlvil f^pirii. nentioned
in the iuglo-Saxon poems by the name of Grendel, which is the
same word as grindel, a bolt, bar, or grating. Logi, flame, is cogn.
with the M.-Qoth. liuhan, to shine, and liuhatli ' A.-8. leoht;
Germ. Licht ; Agl. light ; also Dan. Lue : Oerm. Lohe ; smothered
flame. L(55urr is j-om the older 168, iire {Germ, lodern, to blaze).
Loptr, the Aerial, from lopt; M.-Goth, luftus; Germ, and Dan,
Luft ; ji.-^'. lyft, the air ; whence the Engl, loft, lofty, aloft,
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