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 of the runic alphabets, and the gloss a continuation of the practice of equating Odin with Mercury found as early as Tacitus. The poem is additionally in the style of later Old Norse material featuring Odin, such as the Old Norse poem , featuring Odin and the engaging in a deadly game of wits. The 7th-century , and Paul the Deacon's 8th-century derived from it, recount a founding myth of the Langobards (Lombards), a Germanic people who ruled a region of the Italian Peninsula. According to this legend, a "small people" known as the were ruled by a woman named