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
Odin peoples; some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym "Óðinn" (popularly anglicised as "Odin") and its cognates, including Old English "Wōden", Old Saxon "Wōden", and Old High German "Wuotan", derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym "*wōđanaz". The masculine noun "*wōđanaz" developed from the Proto-Germanic adjective "*wōđaz", related to Latin "vātēs" and Old Irish "fáith", both meaning 'seer, prophet'. Adjectives stemming from "*wōđaz" include Gothic "woþs" 'possessed', Old Norse "óðr", 'mad, frantic, furious', and Old English "wōd" 'mad'. The adjective "*wōđaz" (or "*wōđō") was further substantivised, leading to Old Norse "óðr" 'mind, wit, soul, sense', Old English "ellen-wōd" 'zeal',