Identifying Lóðurr as Loki is not as certain as Stephanie says it is with her smug parenthetical, and in the
Prose Edda a different trio of gods (still containing Odin) are cited instead. These being the three gods who
found the two proto-humans and helped uplift them into people.
Wikipedo.
The
Eddas rule, but as with many ancient texts we have about paganism, it's important to be aware that they're written versions of centuries-old oral mythologies. They were finally recorded as a Christian author realizes this is significant, but at the same time being influenced by the author's own religious biases. The oral tradition drifts with the telling, with time and over distances before mass communication--until it's crystallized in this version by the authors who could write, and managed to have their writing preserved.
But personal bias, since when has Loki helped anyone without an ulterior motive? I'm on the camp of the
Poetic Eddas' "it was Odin and his actual brothers," because they have matching alliterative names. I will admit that that take is likely informed by reading the d'Aulaire book at an appropriate age.
sources: vague recollections of amateur comparative religion, TTRPGs, wikipedia, general crankiness
eta: these dudes, Odin and his two brothers who wandered off later. Pictured: messing with Ymir.
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