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
Old Norse religion woman, and baby lying adjacent to each other alongside the remains of a horse and dismembered dog. The body of a second woman in the stern was adorned with weapons, jewellery, a bronze cauldron, and a metal staff; archaeologists have suggested that she may have been a sorceress. In certain areas of the Nordic world, namely coastal Norway and the Atlantic colonies, smaller boat burials are sufficiently common to indicate it was no longer only an elite custom. Ship burial is also mentioned twice in the Old Norse literary-mythic corpus. A passage in Snorri Sturluson's "Ynglinga Saga" states that Odin—whom