“Sleipnir is the finest steed, the best horse of the Æsir”
Grímnismál
“...and better than any other Jǫtunheimr horse"
Skáldskaparmál
Óðinn's steed is gray, has eight legs, is faster than the wind when galloping over the sea, and is the product of sex between Svaðilfari and Loki.
He was born of the deceiver Loki, who is a male god transformed into a mare, often associated with evil, and of Svaðilfari, a hardworking stallion associated with good intention.
The same color of Sleipnir's mottled gray coat is a mix of black and white, or light and dark, reflecting the many ways a horse could represent both good and evil, light and dark.
In addition to this, Sleipnir is the iconic symbol of the shamanic role that the horse had as a medium between the world of the living and that of the dead.
To understand Sleipnir's role it is important to understand that the figure of the horse was, in Viking culture, strongly symbolic, playing an important role in religion, rituals and beliefs.
The horse was seen as a bridge between worlds, the primary form of transportation across the spaces between the living and the dead and beyond the boundaries of reality.
This transcendent role is perhaps one of the most important uses of horses in Eddic sources, since so many myths revolve around the interaction of various mythological worlds always separated from each other by fire, water, air or earth.
Bridges and horses are the main means of connecting these different kingdoms.
Bifröst, sometimes referred to as a rainbow, is said to burn where the red color shines, the Gylfaginning explains that all Æsir must traverse the asbrú (Bifröst) daily to reach their judgment seats, it is not clear exactly which worlds they are connected by the Bifröst, but Urðr's well is where the gods take their daily advice across the bridge.
Þórr is the only exception among the gods who walks, does not ride, on Bifröst to Miðgarðr.
Both Grímnismál and Gylfaginning count twelve houses for twelve gods, but only eleven horses: Sleipnir, Glaðr, Gyllir, Glær, Skeiðbrimir, Silfrtoppr, Sinir, Gils, Falhófnir, Gulltoppr and Léttfeti.
In the Íslendingasǫgur, echoes of the role of the horse as a transcendent animal are found, the horse was in fact often associated with the dead and the afterlife, given its ability to predict fate and foretell death.
In Old Norse sources the horse is associated with supernatural powers over the elements, fertility and health.
In the Nordic world the horse was much more than just a transport animal for the living and the dead, it was considered a sacred, spiritual animal and, like a shaman, provided a connection between mortal and mythological beings to the realms of the unconscious and the supernatural.
Throughout Iceland's history horses were highly respected animals, indispensable for transporting hay, fish and other products between farms and ports, used for herding and other agricultural work, necessary for travel, battles, entertainment (fighting of horses), as well as for herding sheep and bringing men to Alþing each year, had many practical purposes and served as a source of joy, pride, and social status.
In mythological sources Horses are associated with other worlds and the afterlife, not only as a transport animal, but also as an intermediary connecting man to the supernatural and spiritual realms.
The horse is used by the gods to travel between worlds, over fiery bridges and great rivers, through light and dark.
The Valkyries, those who selected the slain, then used the horse to transport them to Valhll.
The Æsir ride daily to their judging posts on their horses while it is Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Óðinn, who guides the deceased Baldr and brings Hermóðr to Hel.
In the Íslendingasǫgur horses have both practical and supernatural purposes, serving man while he is alive, dreaming or dying.
Horse spirits, a type of fylgjur, visit men in their dreams to foretell death, and some heroes of the saga are buried with their horses fully attached in examples of horse graves (e.g. Skalla-Grímr in the Egils saga).
The offering of horses to the gods was very significant and, furthermore, it was perhaps believed that it was capable of carrying messages or requests to the gods.
Horses were trusted animals to find their way to the gods, providing the means of transportation and knowing the way to the next life.
Loumand 2006
When horses were sacrificed, their blood was read to predict the future and horse cults were often attributed to Freyr worshipers
Andrén 2007 & Davidson 1964
Some horse sacrifices were given to the gods of death to keep them content in the underworld, as in the case of the god Sámi Ruto, the Finno-Ugric god of disease and misfortune, who was given a black horse to keep him inside his underworld.
DuBois 1999
In the Íslendingasǫgur we find both Christian and pagan burials, cremation and burial are the most commonly indicated.
Mound tombs, or haugars, were a custom in the pagan tradition, institutionalized by King Danr of Denmark who asked to be buried in a mound with his horse fully saddled.
Tacitus explains pagan burial practices as simple procedures, in which the bodies of famous men are burned on the pyre with their horse and buried in a mound:
“...the bodies of famous men are burned with particular types of wood. When they have piled up the pyre, they do not throw garments or spices on it; only the arms of the dead man, and sometimes his horse too, are thrown into the flames. The tomb is a raised mound of peat."
Lund 1988
In burying the dead, he relied on their horses for passage to the next world, and secured them a mount in the battle paradise, Valhll.
Many graves with buried ships and horses have been found throughout Scandinavia, suggesting a Baldr-type funeral in which both ships and horses were seen as means of transportation to enter the afterlife.
Baldr's funeral is described to us in the Gylfaginning:
"His body was laid on the Hringhorn ship, along with his fully harnessed horse, and burned together and pushed into the sea."
Archaeological evidence from the Vendel Tombs at Gokstand and Oseberg, Sweden also provides examples of ship burials containing horses, and archaeological excavations in Iceland have found forty-eight graves on horseback, a man or woman buried with their horse.
Loumand 2005 & Graslund 1980
Einarsdóttir in 2013 identifies three plausible hypotheses as to why a man's burial would require killing his horse to accompany him to the grave.
The first, suggested by the recording of Óðinn's law in the Ynglinga saga, states that it is for the sake of material wealth:
This law states that a noble man should be burned on a pyre with all of his possessions, so that he can get to Valhll with all the same things he had with him earlier in his life; in this way, he could continue to enjoy his earthly possessions even in the afterlife (Ellis 1968).
The second hypothesis is that horses and other grave goods were indicators of social status or profession.
In Frankish burial practices, animals found in medieval Merovingian tombs are believed to reflect the social rank of the deceased (Effros 2003).
The fact that many riding graves consisted of the dead person, a horse and all of their riding equipment could support both hypotheses, as riding equipment was often expensive, ornate and personal to the horse and its owner, to note however as Loumand (2006) disagrees that the horse was buried with its equipment as an emblem of social status, the riding equipment must have served a more functional purpose.
A third hypothesis is that the horse was a necessary commodity for the deceased, since the journey to the afterlife could not be made without a horse to ride there.
Riding equipment was not simply buried with the horse and rider, but attached to the horse.
Since the goods were placed on the horse, fully harnessed and saddled, it makes sense that the horse should be buried completely with tacks so that it was ready for the journey to carry its owner with the same ride comfort it was used to in life previous.
An extension of this hypothesis is that the horse had to accompany the defeated rider from battle to the next life, taking him not only to Valh Valll, but making sure the deceased had his horse, tack and weapons to use in daily fights. , outside the einherjar in the Óðinn hall:
"Every day, when they have a suit, they arm themselves and go out into the garden and beat each other up. It's their game. And when it's a matter of time, they come home Valhallar ok setjask til drykkju"
Gylfaginning
Loumand in 2005 analyzes forty-eight Icelandic graves containing a body with a horse where it is safe to assume that the horses were killed to accompany the deceased to his grave.
In one case, the horse's meat was cut into small pieces, suggesting that the horse served as food for the deceased, but usually the horse was killed by decapitation, a slit in the throat or a blow to the head and then buried whole.
However, it is important to make the distinction that the deceased does not ride alone in Valhll; Horses are not a means of transportation for them, but for the Valkyries, and it is the Valkyries who transport the deceased directly to the afterlife.
Horses serve only as a direct means of transportation for the deceased in their next life after they arrive in Valhǫll.
The daily sport of the einherjar involves the slain nobles riding on the battlefield, playing fight and then returning to Valhǫll.
Horses have sometimes helped define (or blur) the boundaries of religion. This can be seen through both the religious practices of pre-Christian and Christian Icelanders, as many superstitions and religious beliefs surrounding horses remained intact after the conversion.
The conversion of Iceland was not a quick process and was not followed by the total breakdown of paganism.
The adoption of Christianity in Iceland also included a special consideration for horse meat, although the consumption of horse meat was not tolerated in other Christian societies.
However, horse meat was still associated with pagan traditions and the consumption of horse meat became an important indicator of the pagan religion, especially considering the fact that the adoption of Christianity usually required a ban on slaughtering horses and the law explicitly states that the consumption of horse meat was an ancient custom.
However, the adoption of Christianity in Iceland still included this exception. The Íslendingabók explains the conversion process decided in Alþing in the year 1000, which stipulated that all men had to be baptized in the new religion, while the old laws would remain for the consumption of horse meat.
In addition to marking pagan practices, the prohibition on sacrificing horses and the flexibility of being able to eat horse meat also reflected some basic Christian ideals, one should not kill or harm unnecessarily, unless an animal can be cured or the family is hungry, which justifies the killing of the horse to spare the suffering for both sides.
Eating horse meat, in the Christian sense, then became a sin, since the horse was a precious worker for every peasant, and using the horse as meat was forgiven only in case of hunger.
The depictions of Sleipnir found on the 8th century Gotland stones show him with sailing ships and potential images of Valkyrie (Lindqvist 1941) all three of which are associated with some sort of transport for the dead (Dubois 1999).
Most of the depictions on these stones and also on the golden bracts found by archaeologists show a knight on horseback on Sleipnir, probably the same Óðinn, riding as leader of the dead (Simek 1993).
An important distinction that needs to be drawn is the difference between Sleipnir's role as a means of transportation for the dead and Sleipnir's role as a means of communication with the other world.
A closer look at Óðinn's eight-legged horse could reinforce the hypothesis that horses played an important role in transcending the worlds into the afterlife.
Sleipnir means "slippery" and could be a reference to the ways this horse could easily slip between worlds and down into the underworld (Price 2002).
However, did Sleipnir or other mythological horses play a role in transporting the deceased to the afterlife?
The burning ship of Baldr's funeral pyre is called 'mare-Sleipnir' and is pushed into the sea to carry the beautiful god into the next life (Húsdrápa 10-11), but Baldr's horse is also burned on the pyre, so as an agent transport is the one in charge of taking Baldr to the afterlife?
It seems likely that the horse and ship are meant to accompany Baldr to the afterlife, in accordance with Óðinn's law stated earlier by the Ynglinga saga, and not to transport him there.
If we look closely at all instances where Sleipnir carries a knight between worlds, there is never a dead person riding him, only live knights.
Óðinn rides Sleipnir between mythological worlds (i.e. to Jǫtunheimr), and his ride to Niflhel is told in Baldrs draumar:
Upp reis Óðinn,
alda gautr,
ok hann á Sleipni
söðul di lagði;
reið hann niðr þaðan
niflheljar til;
mætti hann hvelpi,
þeim er ór helju kom.
After the goddesses and deities had discussed Baldr's premonitory dreams, Óðinn put a saddle on Sleipnir and rode to Niflhel, where Hel resided, and in her high hall, asked the seer who will kill Baldr.
After reluctantly telling Óðinn that he is his son who will kill Baldur, he tells him to go home and fate will follow his course.
In this example, Sleipnir is the horse used to travel between worlds, and is the means by which Óðinn can discover the meaning behind Baldr's foreboding dream and who will eventually become Baldr's killer.
However, the horse is never used to carry Baldr and neither Óðinn nor Sleipnir manage to retrieve the deceased Baldr and bring him back to the world of the living.
Hermóðr's race to Hel in Gylfaginning is at the request of Frigg, who wants someone to win all of his love and favor by agreeing to travel the road to Hel to find Baldr and bring him home to Ásgarðr.
Once Hermóðr went through eight days of darkness and crossed the bridge over the great river Gjall, he arrived at the portent omens of Hel, which Sleipnir jumped without even touching the top of the gate.
Sleipnir is able to carry Hermóðr through the darkness in hopes of bringing Baldr back to life, but Sleipnir never carries Baldr in this example.
Óðinn's horse is used for travel due to its ability to transcend the world and the way it is entrusted with the transport of Hermóðr beyond dark and dangerous barriers, but Sleipnir is not a means of transportation for the dead.
Ultimately, it may be due to the horse's poor ability to carry the dead that Baldr is never recovered, as Sleipnir can only take Hermóðr to Hel and safely return again.
Why does Sleipnir have eight legs?
For some, this is a great mystery in Norse mythology, and others think it is a fairly simple and meaningless question since it only meant that he could travel twice as fast by doubling the number of legs.
They would also help him with his balance and his strength, to cross the boundaries of all worlds and elementary barriers.
Regardless of whether his speed or sturdiness has been affected or not, another possible idea is that the tölting or skeið (flight rhythm) gait, when engaged at full speed, blurs the vision of how many legs there really are.
