“A connection to lightning is an attribute that Lugus, Agni, and Loki have in common. Agni was a god associated with all kinds of fire, including the fire of the sky, and one of his sacred objects is a flaming spear. It has likewise been postulated that rather being a sun god, the Celtic Lugus was actually a god of storms and particularly lightning. It is thought that the name Lugus is derived from the Indo-European word leuk meaning “light”, and this could be a reference to a lightning-flash. Lugus and his Irish manifestation, Lúgh, also possessed many magical objects, including a spear (which like Óðinn’s spear Gungnir is probably symbolic of lightning), a hammer (symbolic of thunder), and a magical ship.19 Interestingly, according to Snorri, these are the same three gifts that Loki originally got from the dwarves and gave to Óðinn, Þórr, and Freyr. As these were the three gods who were apparently the most important and highly revered in the Temple of Uppsala,20 it has often crossed my mind that this story could contain the dim memory of a time when Loki was adopted into the religion of the Germanic tribes (just as he was adopted into the tribe of the Æsir) from a neighboring culture. If he were considered to be an important god in said culture, perhaps a story would have been constructed in which he passed on the symbols of his power (including his “spear” of lightning) to the primary Germanic gods after his adoption, leaving himself with a lesser status. However, I must stress that this is merely speculation.”