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
Alu (runic) bracteate discovered on the island of Funen, Denmark features incomprehensible and meaningful text. The bracteate is housed with many others at the National Museum of Denmark. The transcription reads: What is transcribed as a-- above has been tentatively read as alu. The word houaz has been interpreted as corresponding to Old Norse "hávi" "the high one", a name of Odin. The Uppåkra bracteat (DR NOR2002;10), a C-bracteate found in Uppåkra, Scania, Sweden during a search with a metal detector in 2000. The bracteate bears a Proto-Norse runic inscription. The transliteration reads: The bracteate depicts a man's head over a four-legged