Christmas gift-bringer the leader of the Wild Hunt at the time of Yule. Santa Claus's reindeer has also been compared to Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin in Norse mythology. Jacob Grimm ("Deutsche Mythologie") traces the threatening or scary companions of Saint Nicholas (such as the Krampus of the Austro-Bavarian dialect region) to Christianized versions of house-spirits (kobolds, elves). After Christianization, the benign mid-winter gift-bringer was associated with the 4th-century Christian Saint Nicholas of Myra. This association took place mainly in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, including German-speaking Europe, the Low Countries, the Czech lands, Hungary and Slovenia. The basis
Old Norse religion and dying in order to secure knowledge of the runes and other wisdom in what resembles an initiatory rite, is evidence of mysticism in Old Norse religion. The gods were associated with two distinct forms of magic. In "Hávamál" and elsewhere, Odin is particularly associated with the runes and with galdr. Charms, often associated with the runes, were a central part of the treatment of disease in both humans and livestock in Old Norse society. In contrast seiðr and the related spæ, which could involve both magic and divination, were practised mostly by women, known as vǫlur and spæ-wives, often