Icelandic horse them. Horses played a significant part in Norse mythology, and several horses played major roles in the Norse myths, among them the eight-footed pacer named Sleipnir, owned by Odin, chief of the Norse gods. Skalm, a mare who is the first Icelandic horse known by name, appeared in the "Book of Settlements" from the 12th century. According to the book, a chieftain named Seal-Thorir founded a settlement at the place where Skalm stopped and lay down with her pack. Horses also play key roles in the Icelandic sagas "Hrafnkel's Saga", "Njal's Saga" and "Grettir's Saga". Although written in the 13th
Odin and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree is near universally accepted as the cosmic tree , and if the tree is , then the name (Old Norse 'Ygg's steed') directly relates to this story. Odin is associated with hanging and gallows; John Lindow comments that "the hanged 'ride' the gallows". In the prose introduction to the poem , the hero Sigurd rides up to and heads south towards "the land of the Franks". On the mountain sees a great light, "as if fire were burning, which blazed up to the sky". approaches it, and there he sees a