When Loki Became Fire: Wagner’s Loge and the Norse God Who Wasn’t

For those familiar with Norse mythology, but unfamiliar with the work of Richard Wagner, there will probably be an eyebrow-arching moment while watching the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Robert Lepage production of Das Rheingold when Richard Croft as Loge the god of fire strides onto the stage. Loki wasn’t a god of fire.

The effect is pretty cool.

The fiery aura or “dancing nimbus” around Richard Croft is principally an interactive projection effect, not ordinary stage lighting. The production’s video-image artist was Boris Firquet, who provided the overall creative direction for the projected imagery. The interactive system was developed by Roger Parent and Réalisations.net. Their custom SENSEI system used motion detection so projected particles could respond to performers in real time. The technical account of the production explicitly says that Loge moves with a pool of fire beneath him which reacts to the movement of his feet.

When Croft moves, the flames seem to follow him, lick around him, or dance in response to his actions.

Étienne Boucher was the production's lighting designer, and his conventional lighting is also part of why Loge moves like an incandescent flame. But the moving flame envelope itself belongs to the Firquet / Réalisations.net interactive-video side of the production. The Met credits Boucher for lighting and Firquet as video image artist.

The glowing fire in Croft's hands is a completely different trick, and there's unusually good documentation about it.

Those are custom LED units built into Croft’s costume. They were developed for Boucher by Philippe Jean of the Montreal firm Ateliers Numériques. Jean designed the electronics himself using programmable RGBA LEDs, tiny microcontrollers, batteries, and wireless DMX control.

Loge doesn't merely wear a costume telling you this man represents fire. The stage behaves differently around him. Fire accompanies him. It responds to him. His fingertips ignite. He can apparently breathe life into the embers in his hands.

But anyone who’s read the Poetic Edda, or Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, or even browsed through D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths will still say, “That’s really cool! But Loki wasn’t a god of fire. Was he?”

Those who know Wagner well might shrug, and say, “That’s Wagner. He does that.”

But how did that particular character change come about?

One story came to mind.

In Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire’s D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths, there is an eating contest that occurs when Thor, Loki, and their companions visit the giant stronghold of Utgard, ruled by Utgard-Loki.

Utgard-Loki challenges the visitors to prove that they possess extraordinary skill. Loki, confident in his appetite and speed, boasts that no one can eat faster than he can. Utgard-Loki accepts the challenge and calls forward a member of his household named Logi.

A great wooden platter filled with meat is placed between them. Loki starts at one end and Logi at the other. They both eat furiously toward the center, and reach it at roughly the same time.

But Loki had merely eaten all the meat, leaving the bones behind. Logi consumed the meat, the bones, and even the wooden platter itself.

Later, Utgard-Loki reveals that all of the contests were magical tricks designed to pit the gods against forces they could never defeat. Loki’s opponent was not an ordinary giant. Logi was fire itself.

I will look up the Norse reference in the source material later, but I’m confident that the D’Aulaires version matches the original tale.

In the Norse myth, Loki and Logi are two different characters standing opposite one another, and competing. Logi is fire; Loki is not. It appears Wagner fused the two characters creatively.

I will next try to trace this transformation, and why it happened.

Works Cited:

Barbour, David. “The Road to Valhalla.” Lighting&Sound America, Jan. 2011, pp. 52–59, https://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/metoperaringcycle.pdf. Accessed 6 Sept. 2026.

D’Aulaire, Ingri, and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire. D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths. Preface by Michael Chabon, New York Review Books, 2005.