I'm away from my books.

Odin = Creator, correct?

Ya, Creator, Dark King, Sky Father, Wise Warrior, or Wild Huntsman.

i've always strongly favored Odin as the Dark King. he fits perfectly--he is in charge of the dead, in that his Valkyries bring dead warriors to Valhalla; and he sacrificed physical wholeness (his eye) for magical power.

Ya, I personally would drop Wise Warrior and add Trickster to that list, but that's just me.

Isn't the Trickster more Loki's bag of bones?

They're both Tricksters through and through, which is probably why they get along so splendidly. Their other aspects diverge more.

~J

They get along splendidly? Didn't Odin bind Loki beneath the earth with a woman and a snake, and the snake drips corrosive poison into a bowl which the woman pours onto his face for eternity?

Maybe I've just been reading too much Neil Gaiman.

The woman's not actually bound there. She's there by choice, using the bowl to catch the (acidic?) poison and keep it from dripping onto Loki, her love's, face. The bowl fills up sometimes, though, and she's got to turn away to empty it -- and then some venom lands on his face because the next drop falls before she can get the bowl back into place, and he has a tantrum, and that's what causes earthquakes.

...Because, well, like pretty much all other mythology, sometimes the characters get along great and sometimes they don't. In some stories, Thor, Odin, and Loki are chillin' like villains and go on merry adventures together. Just like in some stories, Satan and God have friendly conversations and dare each other to fuck with Lot's life. And then in others...well, you know. Folks get along less well.

Loki and Odin are actually brothers, and spend a good portion of Norse lore hanging out together getting into trouble. It's only when Loki eventually pushes thing too far, killing Balder, that they really part ways.

They're both total con artists.

Edit to clarify: Some translations have them as half brothers, some as an unclear relation, and others as more of a blood brother/best friend who's like a brother relationship. Odin clearly calls Loki his brother in several places and even swears an oath to not drink without him (that's a serious drinking buddy, omae!).

I thought Loki was only half asgardian?

Loki is Odin's blood brother, not biological brother (to the extent that such applies to the gods). He's entirely giant, and while Thor generally doesn't get on with him so well, he was extremely close to Odin and relatively trusted by most of the gods. Friction increases as time goes on, culminating in the induced murder of Baldr which is when the whole binding-in-cave-with-entrails-of-his-children thing starts.

~J