Sleipnir
Odin’s eight-legged horse in Norse myth, grey and the best of all horses, able to cross between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Meaning
Store norske leksikon describes Sleipnir as grey, eight-legged and, in the myths, the best of all horses; the Eddic poem Grímnismál names “Sleipnir the best of steeds”. The Danish encyclopedia Lex adds what makes him Odin’s: he can cross the border between the living and the dead. In Snorri’s Edda it is on Sleipnir that the god Hermod rides to Hel to ask for Balder’s return.
Origin and history
Snorri’s Edda tells how Sleipnir was born. A giant builder offered to wall Asgard in a single winter with the help of his stallion Svadilfari; to stop him finishing, Loki took the shape of a mare and lured the stallion away, and “some time after bore a foal. It was gray, and had eight feet, and this is the best horse among gods and men.” Sleipnir is older than Snorri. The National Museum of Denmark shows a gold bracteate of the Iron Age with Odin and his eight-legged horse, and Store norske leksikon points to the Tjängvide picture stone from Gotland, dated to about 700 and now in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, where an eight-legged horse is shown at the top.
The rider on the Tjängvide stone
Store norske leksikon reports that several scholars read the Tjängvide scene as the person the stone commemorates arriving in the land of the dead on Sleipnir, met by a valkyrie holding a drinking horn.
Runes on his teeth
In the Eddic poem Sigrdrífumál the valkyrie lists the places where runes of power are carved, and they include Sleipnir’s teeth. Store norske leksikon adds that in the Völsunga saga Sigurd’s horse Grani is descended from Sleipnir, as Odin himself, in disguise, tells the young Sigurd.
Read next
- Next in Norse and Viking symbolsHuginn and MuninnOdin’s two ravens in Norse myth. Their names mean “thought” (or “mind”) and “memory”, and each day they fly over the world and bring Odin news of all that happens.
- In Norse gods and their symbolsOdinOdin was the chief of the Norse gods: god of kings, war and the dead, and of poetry and magic, who gave an eye for wisdom. His signs are the spear Gungnir, the ravens Huginn and Muninn, the eight-legged horse Sleipnir, the wolves Geri and Freki and the gold ring Draupnir.
See also
Loki, Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Gungnir, Yggdrasil, Valknut, Triple horn of Odin.
Sources
- Sleipne (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Sleipner (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- The Younger Edda (Anderson translation), Snorri Sturluson, trans. Rasmus B. Anderson, 1880, Project Gutenberg
- The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation), Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), 1923, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Project Gutenberg), Grimnismol, stanza 44; Sigrdrifumol, stanza 15
- The old religion, National Museum of Denmark
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves or lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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