# Lok — Poetry character guide

> Lok in Poetry by Matthew Arnold.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Loki

**First appearance:** 0135-balder-dead

## Snapshot

The trickster whose cunning turns the gods' own blindness against them, engineering the death that shatters Asgard's peace.

## Who they are

Lok moves through the divine world as its most dangerous intelligence, a being whose malice is matched only by his intimate knowledge of every weakness. He is not a distant villain but a familiar presence whose schemes exploit the gods' trust and Hoder's sightless hand. His role in Balder's death makes him the poem's engine of catastrophe, the figure whose cleverness forces the gods to confront the fragility of their ordered world.

## Relationships

### [Balder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/balder)

_rivalry_

Lok (Loki) is the trickster god who engineers Balder's death out of malice and jealousy.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/lok
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters