Why is Loki Called Skywalker? Answer: No, it is NOT a Star Wars reference! You have it backward!
Answer for Why is Loki called "Skywalker" in The Sandman: Season of Mists?
I've seen this questioned a lot lately.
"Why is Loki called Skywalker?" "Is it because he's dressed like a cross between Hon Solo and Luke? Lol! Love it!"
Eh... No. (though I admit he does look like that in that artwork, doesn't he?)
Loki actually had the title before Luke. George Lucas was the one making a reference to Loki, not Loki making reference to George Lucas.
Darth Vader was from the Dutch to mean Dark Father. And Anikin meant a type of giant. Get it? Giant Dark Father. Father of Loki... I mean Luke. It was George Lucas who made the reference. Loki had the name first.
It's a bit like when younger people get weirded out to find out "Canon" originally was used to mean "What is considered true within the Catholic religion." The Catholic church used it first before the word Canon was applied to "Is it true within this work of fiction." In fact canonization is the term used to mean officially acknowledging someone is a saint.
Now... To answer the question of why is Loki called Skywalker?
Well, he is the trickster God.
Skywalker (sometimes translated as Sky-treader) means Loki could travel fast and easily between realms. (Yes, without need of the Bifrost.)
One explanation for this power was given later with the concept of the Seven-League Boots.
A popular trope in European folktales are a magical pair of boots known as The Seven-league boots (roughly twenty one miles as a league is three miles). The boots could let you travel twenty one miles with a single step and could allow the wearer to walk on anything including shadows, mist, and moonbeams.
You could pass from one world to another such as the realm of Faerie with a mere thought.
One of my favorite mentions of the Seven-League boots is in Goethe's Faust Part 1.
In Marvel's Loki: Agent of Asgard, Loki has the Seven-league boots and this is cleverly tied to the Faust depiction of them becuase Loki stole them from Mephisto (who is also the demon from Faust, besides being an antagonist in Marvel comics).
Some more contemporary variations of the Loki myths suggest he's always had seven-league boots, which accounted for his unique ability to travel easier than the other Norse Gods.
