In some versions of

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern per ...

, Váli was one of the unlucky sons of

Loki Loki is a god in Norse mythology. According to some sources, Loki is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mentioned as a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi ...

. He is mentioned in the ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; c. 20,000 words; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'' after the Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' deals with t ...

'' section of

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

's ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been ...

'', chapter 50. After the death of

Baldr Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Baldr (Old Norse: ) is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was ...

, the

Æsir The Æsir (Old Norse: ) are the gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. They include Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr. The second Norse pantheon is the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, ...

chase down and capture Loki; in this version it is an unnamed god rather than Váli, son of

, who binds Loki with his son's entrails: Váli, son of Loki, is otherwise unknown. A variant version in the '' Hauksbók'' manuscript of stanza 34 of "

Völuspá ''Vǫluspá'' (also ''Völuspá'', ''Vǫlospá'' or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress'; reconstructed Old Norse: ) is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It tells the story of the creation of the world and ...

" refers to this event; it begins: "Þá kná Vála , vígbǫnd snúa", usually amended to the nominative ''Váli'' in order to provide a subject for the verb; in Ursula Dronke's translation in her edition of the poem, "Then did Váli , slaughter bonds twist". Ursula Dronke (ed. and trans.), ''The Poetic Edda'' Volume II: ''Mythological Poems'', Oxford: Oxford University/Clarendon, 1997, repr. 2001,
p. 76
This presumably refers to Váli, son of Óðinn, who was begotten to avenge Baldr's death, and thus it is not unlikely that he bound Loki; but the ''Hauksbók'' stanza interrupts the flow of "Völuspá" at this point and presumably draws on a variant oral tradition. It is likely that this was Snorri's source, and that he interpreted the manuscript text ''Vála vígbǫnd'' as "bonds from Váli's act of slaughter", thus inventing a second Váli. In the rather cryptic prose at the end of " Lokasenna", which appears to be derived from Snorri's account,

Narfi Narfi (Old Norse: ), also Nörfi (O.N.: ), Nari or Nörr (O.N.: ), is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the father of Nótt, the personified night. Name The Old Norse name ''Nǫrr'' has been related to the Old Saxon ('night'), a name which ...

transforms into a wolf and his brother Nari's guts are used to bind their father.Dronke
pp. 347371–72

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vali (Son Of Loki) Jötnar Loki