Mårten Eskil Winge was greatly inspired by the roman artists and spend years in Rome finding inspiration for his artworks. In this piece he paints his greatest passion since his childhood, the Norse gods. Loki is known as the god of mischief in the Norse mythology. He was the son of giants, smart and cunning, he could change his appearance into anything, sometimes a fly, a horse, a falcon and many more. One day he tricked the blind god Höder to kill the god Balder with an arrow made of mistletoe, the only thing that could kill him. Since Balder was loved by many gods Loki was punished gravely for his crime. After killing Balder he tried to escape disguising himself as a salmon, however Thor found him hiding in a river. Here Winge has painted his punishment where the gods took him to a cave, there they called upon Loki’s sons Vale and Narve, whom they turned into a wolf. …show more content…
Above his face the goddess Skadi hung a venomous snake, which dripped its venom onto him. Sigyn, Loki’s wife, pitied him and stood above him in the cold, dark cave gathering the venom into a bowl so that her husband would not suffer. Only when the bowl was full and she had to empty it he would feel the pain of the drops and twitch and shake then the whole world would quake. Loki would not break free until the final days of the world, where he is known as the one who brings about the judgment day, Ragnarök. There he fights alongside the giants against the gods in the final battle. Balder was promised by Hel, the goddess of the underworld that he would be resurrected if every living creature would shed a tear for him. As everyone loved Balder it would have worked if not for Loki, who was the only one who did not cry. Condemning Balder to live in the