The spider spinning a web and the Wyrd Sisters weaving our fate – it's easy to see how some superstitions regarding spiders invoke luck or involve fate – or even foretell a gift of clothing!

The words 'spider' and 'spinner' both come from the same root - *(s)pen – 'to spin' and the words 'web' and 'weave' also share the same origin - *(h)uebh- 'to weave'. So its no wonder how the two overlap.

But there is another element to the web – another beast who has eight legs! Sleipnir! Fathered by Loga (Loki) as Loki himself has a connection with the spider. According to Hilding Celander, writing in 1911, the name Locke meant 'spider'. This may be the meaning behind the name Loki.

The Faroese word Lokkanet (Lokke's web) meant cobweb, just as the Swedish word lokkanät does, from the Germanic root word *luk meaning locked, looped or knotted. Loki the tangler indeed.