![]() Sleipnir’s famous eight legs have been claimed by some modern-day writers to be a result of his magical birth which left him deformed, but scholars reject this claim noting that they were probably imagined to convey the concept of speed. The eight-legged horse as a shamanic symbol of transformation, however, predates Sleipnir’s name (at least in writing) as Gotland rune stones feature the image of Odin on the eight-legged horse arriving in the afterlife as early as the 8th century. 1179-1241) for the Prose Edda, a unified narrative of Norse myths written in the 13th century. Sleipnir is first mentioned by name in 10th-century Eddic poetry which was among the sources used by the Icelandic historian and mythographer Snorri Sturluson (l. Although there are no stories of Sleipnir predicting the future overtly, he is thought to be quite intuitive, knowing the fastest way to reach a destination to minimize risks to his rider. The divination took the form of harnessing a horse, or horses, to a chariot or wagon and then observing the path they took, usually between spears or other projectiles set on the ground in front of them. In the first century AD, the sacred horses of the Germans were held to understand the will of the gods more clearly than their priests could do, according to Tacitus, so that they were used for divination. Like Freyr’s boar, Odin’s horse traveled swiftly though the sky and down into the realm of death. A horse could carry a departed hero to the realm of the dead and is shown doing this on many of the memorial stones set up in Gotland in the Viking Age. The horse was an animal which could be associated with the journeying sun and it was an important religious symbol in the North from the Bronze Age onwards. ![]() The völva was highly respected, but it was recognized that horses were closer to the gods and could understand them better than any völva. There was no clergy in Norse religious practice, but there was the figure of the völva (seeress), a woman who received messages from the gods, could predict the future, and presided over community rituals. In Scandinavian culture, the stallion replaced the bull as the symbol of virility and power, but horses generally were understood as possessing supernatural abilities that placed them in communion with the gods and spirits. Sleipnir is then thought to carry Odin to the afterlife in keeping with the traditional understanding of the horse a liminal being in Norse mythology. In the final battle between the forces of chaos that include Loki and Sleipnir’s half-siblings Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel – among others – on the side of chaos, most of the Norse gods are killed, including Odin and his faithful horse. Sleipnir’s final ride is to carry Odin to the battlefield of Vigrid at Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods. The great horse also features in the tale of Odin’s race with the giant Hrungnir who is killed by Thor when he threatens the Asgardians. Sleipnir is able to easily jump the high fence around Hel and then bring Hermóðr safely back to the gods at Asgard. Since he was born of two supernatural entities, he is possessed of the power to move easily between realms, including the realm of the dead, leading to his name (pronounced Slayp-near), which means “the sliding one”.Īlthough he is almost always ridden by Odin, in the story of the death of the god Baldr, he is ridden to the realm of Hel in the afterlife by Baldr’s brother Hermóðr. Sleipnir is always depicted as incredibly swift and the “best of all horses”, symbolized by his eight legs that carry a rider anywhere in the nine realms of Norse cosmology in record time. In other stories, he seems only slightly bigger than an average horse, only with eight legs. This story is typical of tales concerning Sleipnir, which often depict him as immensely large, carrying Odin through the realms where some evidence of their passage is left behind. ![]() In Iceland, the glacial canyon Ásbyrgi is known as Sleipnir’s Footprint in the horse’s honor.Īccording to legend, the great horse, carrying Odin, rode through this area and one of his hooves landed amidst a forest, creating the canyon. He is the son of the god Loki (in the form of a mare) and the stallion Svadilfari who belonged to the jötunn that built the walls of Asgard. Sleipnir is the eight-legged horse ridden primarily by the god Odin in Norse mythology. Sleipnir is always depicted as incredibly swift and the “best of all horses”. Photo courtesy Germanic Mythology, Public Domain This illustrated copy of the Prose Edda contains 23 drawings of subjects from Norse mythology. The image is to be found in Manuscript AM 738 4to or Edda oblongata, c.
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