Abstract
The god Loki has become famous in recent years through media of which the Norse could never have dreamed, but in his late Iron Age form he is central to their understanding of the irrational. Shifting sex, gender, and even species, he pairs with animals and giants, fathering monstrous children and also giving birth himself. His divine colleagues were equally transgressive, not least Óðinn in his roles as a god of ecstasy and violence, manifesting his power through the intoxications of wine, sex, poetry, and most of all, rage; he was also a god of lies, proud of his ability to distort truth. This first lecture explores the foundations of Norse 'religion', deconstructing its precepts and setting the scene for the human relationship with the otherworlds of the mind.
