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
Sons of Odin to his supposed master, but Harbard is actually Odin in disguise and there is no clear reference here to a son of Odin. The otherwise unrecorded Itreks-jod "offspring of Ítrekr" may be a reference to any of the sons of Odin, "Ít-rekr" "glorious ruler" being a name of Odin. Meili also appears in the eddic poem "Hárbardsljód" where Thor calls himself Odin's son, Meili's brother and Magni's father. In Snorri's "Gylfaginning" Ali is only another name for Vali and Nep is the father of Baldur's wife Nanna. If this list is correct in giving Odin a son named Nep, and