LOKE, in Mythology, the name of one of the deities of the northern nations, answering to the Atunanius among the Persians, whom they represent as at enmity both with gods and men, and the author of all the evils which desolate the universe. Loke is described in the Edda as producing the great serpent which encircles the world; which seems to have been intended as an emblem of corruption or sin: he also gives birth to Hela or death, the queen of the infernal regions; and also to the wolf Fenris, that monster who is to encounter the gods and destroy the world.