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 and took possession of his wife again". Chapter 4 describes the War. According to the chapter, Odin "made war on the ". The defended their land and the battle turned to a stalemate, both sides having devastated one another's lands. As part of a peace agreement, the two sides exchanged hostages. One of the exchanges went awry and resulted in the decapitating one of the hostages sent to them by the , . The sent 's head to the , whereupon Odin "took it and embalmed it with herbs so that it would not rot, and spoke charms [Old Norse