Norse Code: Loki is Not Thor's Brother

Loki is not Thor's brother.

The Marvel films made Loki and Thor adopted brothers. The surviving Norse sources give Loki a different place in the family. In Lokasenna stanza 9, preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript from about 1270, Loki reminds Odin that they mixed blood and that Odin promised not to drink unless Loki was served too. That makes Loki Odin's blood brother, not his son. Snorri's Gylfaginning, composed around 1220, calls Loki the son of the giant Farbauti and names his mother Laufey or Nal; it does not call Laufey a giant. Put the oath on a family tree and Loki becomes Thor's uncle by oath, which is the episode's joke rather than a title found in either Edda.

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