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
Svaðilfari Svaðilfari In Norse mythology, Svaðilfari (Old Norse perhaps "unlucky traveler"; derived from Old Norse 'svað': 'slippery' - cf. Norwegian 'svaberg' 'slippery rock'; '-il': footwear, protection for the feet; '-fari': 'someoneone who usually goes somewhere specific', 'a traveller'. Possible meaning "the one that like to go where it is slippery') is a stallion that fathered the eight-legged horse Sleipnir with Loki (in the form of a mare). Svaðilfari was owned by the disguised and unnamed hrimthurs who built the walls of Asgard. In chapter 42 of the "Prose Edda" book "Gylfaginning", High tells a story set "right at the beginning of