Today I'm going to introduce you Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged mount (and no, he's not a spider!).
Odin riding Sleipnir ( Tjängvide's picture )
Sleipnir, is the strongest, biggest and most powerful horse in the world.
He can run at unbelievable speed (that's why Odin always gets the best fallen warriors of every single battle... My poor three legged nag can't compete with him) either in the sky, on earth or over the sea.
The English word "slippery" could be a good translation of his name, and it makes me consider that maybe it could be so, due to he doesn't like interviews and I had to insist a lot to make him tell me about his life... Luckily a jar of mead can make things easier, mhwahahahaha!
He can run at unbelievable speed (that's why Odin always gets the best fallen warriors of every single battle... My poor three legged nag can't compete with him) either in the sky, on earth or over the sea.
The English word "slippery" could be a good translation of his name, and it makes me consider that maybe it could be so, due to he doesn't like interviews and I had to insist a lot to make him tell me about his life... Luckily a jar of mead can make things easier, mhwahahahaha!
Sleipnir is the son of Loki ("his mother"... I told you in the title of this entry, that there would be juicy comments ;) ) and Svaldifari, a horse with a high repute who helped to build Asgard's wall.
The history about how their parents meet started when an anonymous builder came as a volunteer to build a fortress for the gods, which will not let any enemy in.
In exchange for his services, he asked for the Moon, the Sun and the goddess Freyja (as you can see, he was a clever dude).
The history about how their parents meet started when an anonymous builder came as a volunteer to build a fortress for the gods, which will not let any enemy in.
In exchange for his services, he asked for the Moon, the Sun and the goddess Freyja (as you can see, he was a clever dude).
Loki would give it to him just if he worked alone and finished his work in six months. Actually Loki thought that he would only be able to build the half of the fortress, and as a result he would get all this work done for free.
The builder accepted and asked if he could be helped by his horse Svadilfari.
The builder accepted and asked if he could be helped by his horse Svadilfari.
Svaldilfari was very strong and could move huge stones easily, which made the gods fear that he might get it... specially when they realized that he was doing all the work on time.
Due to "as usually" Loki was the one who got them into troubles (Freyja gave Loki the cold shoulder for a while), they decided that he would be the one to sabotage the builder's work, so that he would not finish his work on time.
Due to "as usually" Loki was the one who got them into troubles (Freyja gave Loki the cold shoulder for a while), they decided that he would be the one to sabotage the builder's work, so that he would not finish his work on time.
Loki knew that Svadilfari was crucial for the builder to work and because of that he decided to taint the majestic and strong horse by turning himself into a mare and flirting with him... but he went "a little to far" with it... Loki in his mare form, became pregnant and that's how Sleipnir was conceived.
One of the most famous characteristics of Sleipnir is his ability to bring his rider to my place (Helheim), which allowed him to come over and let me interview him and Odin, who you will get to know soon.
There are people who believe that he can fly (I cannot assure it, since he moves his legs so fast that I don't know if he flies or runs...) and because of that they link him to shamanic tradition.
Curiosities about Sleipnir:
I : L Hilda Ellis Davidson , an expert in Nordic mythology states that there is a relation between Sleipnir and the funerary rituals of Old Nordic people. In those funerals, the body of the deceased person was put over a frame and four men brought it to its resting place (either a pyre or a burial mound). According to this, we could consider that the deceased was brought to the underworld by "an eight-legged horse", that's to say, by four men who carried the body to the pyre/burial mound.
II: Some people believe that the eight legs of Sleipnir represent the eight directions in the sky and the eight dimensions.
III: Other fonts suggest that Sleipnir has only 4 legs, and each leg is divided in the knee in two parts, which makes us see as if it was an eight-legged horse.
This representation could be dated around year 900, when viking horses were brought from Norway to Iceland. Those horses have 2 wars of walking besides throttle gallop and walk. One of them is Tölt, which could be defined as a walking style between walk and run, which the horse can do at any speed and is really confortable for the rider. The other walking style is the Flying Pace, really common when racing, which allows the horse to reach 30 m.p.h. An Icelandic horse walking like that produces the eight-legged optic effect (check the following video):
This representation could be dated around year 900, when viking horses were brought from Norway to Iceland. Those horses have 2 wars of walking besides throttle gallop and walk. One of them is Tölt, which could be defined as a walking style between walk and run, which the horse can do at any speed and is really confortable for the rider. The other walking style is the Flying Pace, really common when racing, which allows the horse to reach 30 m.p.h. An Icelandic horse walking like that produces the eight-legged optic effect (check the following video):
In 1:45 minute 1:45 you will see the Flying pace
References:
[1] Price, Neil S. 2002. The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. p. 320-323.
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