Logi

Logi (Old Norse: "fire") is a jotun (giant) in Norse mythology, a deity and personification of fire. Logi is the son of Fornjot, thus brother of Aegir (god of the sea) and Kári (god of the wind).

In the Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, ch. 1, mention is made of a king Logi or Hálogi, who reigned over the northern lands of Norway, married to Glóð with whom he had two very beautiful daughters, Eisa and Eimyrja. Eimyrja married a warrior named Vífil and they had a son named Viking, the protagonist of Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar.

Logi has sometimes been confused with Loki, another Norse deity.

Mentions of Logi

Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar

Hálogi according to Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar is the first king that Hålogaland, Norway had at the beginning of the 10th century and to whom the region owes its name. At first he was called Logi, he was a descendant of jotuns, bigger and stronger than any other human being and was therefore nicknamed Hálogi (great Logi).

Hálogi married Glöd (Glǫð), daughter of Grím (Grímr) of Grímsgard (Grímsgarðr) in Jotunheim, a place in the far north. Glöd's mother was Alvör, sister of King Alf the Elder ('Álfr hinn gamli') of Alvheim. From their union were born two daughters, Eisa and Eimyrja, the most beautiful women in the kingdom.

Two jarls of Hálogi named Véseti and Vífil (Vífill) sought the hand of the king's daughters but were rejected and then abducted and eloped with the princesses. Véseti settled with Eisa on the island of Borgundarhólm where they had success and offspring, two sons Búi and Sigurd Kappe (Sigurðr Kápa). Vífil escaped far to the east, to another island called Vífilsey (Vífil's island) where Eimyrja had a son named Víkingo (Víkingr) who in turn would father Thorstein (Þorsteinn), hero of the saga.

Gylfaginning

Logi appears under his own name in Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning3 (Prosaic Edda) in the account of Thor and Loki's journey to the giant Útgarða-Loki's Castle in Jötunheimr where Loki competed against Logi in a food challenge. The two seemed evenly matched eating meat to the bone, but Logi also consumed the bones and even the wooden crossbeam that held the meat over the fire. Útgarða-Loki later explained that he himself was actually the devouring fire.

Flateyjarbók

In Flateyjarbók, mention is made of the family of Logi who had powers over the forces of Nature.

There was a man named Fornjót, who had three sons: Hlér, another Logi, and the third Kári who ruled over the winds, but Logi over fire and Hlér over the seas.

Jordanes

The legend merges with the historicity of the Hablogi tribe (also called Adogit, possibly a primitive form of the same name) that Jordanes mentioned in his work Getica. The Hälogi shared the territory of Hålogaland with other tribes such as the Screrefennae who are identified with the Sami, a Finno-Ugric nomadic group descendent of Mongol and Siberian raiders.