Sleipnir

Sleipnir (German Schleifner, about " the departed Moving " notation also Sleipner alternative) is in Norse mythology, the eight-legged horse of Odin. It got its name because it equally " glides " on land, on water and in the air. Sleipnir comes from a list of Loki. This had to prevent the timely completion of Asgard as a Hrimthurse, the builder of the wall around Asgard, for the completion of construction, the goddess Freya would have to wife. Loki kidnapped in the form of a mare the stallion of the giants, Svadilfari who helped his owner at work, and begat him Sleipnir. Thus, the stallion was gone for a few days and the time limit should be ready built to the Asgard elapsed. Loki gave his child, Sleipnir, Odin later.

Mircea Eliade writes that the eight-legged horse, the shaman horse par excellence was. It is found, for example, in Siberia and in the Muria, always in relation to the ecstatic experience. On Sleipnir Odin can ride through all the worlds. Some historians is believed that the eight legs a symbol of the legs of four people carrying a coffin. Thus, the Ross also allows to carry a rider in the underworld. Even Odin riding on Sleipnir to Niflheim to fathom Balder dreams.

Sleipnir is, according to legend, the reason why the Ásbyrgi gorge on Iceland has the shape of a horseshoe. As Odin rode with him on the deserts of the Arctic, the horse should have slipped and have set foot on North Iceland. Therefore, the gorge is sometimes referred to as Odin's footprint.