Northern mythology

164 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
whereby it is meant merely to express his great speed, as
Odin's horse is mentioned elsewhere as four-footed. Like
his shield,
Odin's horse was white, in allusion probably to
the clearness of heaven.
In the myth of Sleipnir's birth,
Svadilfori is the winter's cold (according at least to Finn
Magnusen), from sva^, a heap of melting snow, therefore
that which brings sleet and snow-storms ; and the simplest
interpretation of a part of the myth is, perhaps, the following.
Loki (fire, heat), who was probably desirous of resting
a while, persuaded the iEsir
to allow the stranger architect
(Winter) to raise a fortress of ice, which he began
with his assistant, the horse Svadilfori, that is, the intense
CO
cold. But while he was still en2:a2-ed on the work, the
gods saw that the beauty of life, Freyia, would be lost to
them, and the sun and moon hidden in the foul giant's
eternal fog. "Whereupon they caused Loki to connect
himself with
Svadilfori, from which union was born the
gray colt, Sleipnir (the wind), which demolished the icemansion,
and soon increased in growth, so that the god of
the year (Odin) could mount his steed, the cooling wind
of summer ^ That the wind is betokened is apparent from
the popular belief in Meklenburg, that on Wednesday
(Woden's day) no flax is weeded, that Woden's horse may
not trample on the seed ;
nor may any flax remain on the
distaff during the twelve days of Christmas, lest AYoden's
horse ride through and tangle it, and that in Skania and
Bleking, after the harvest, a gift was left on the field for
Odin's horse^. It was also on this horse that Odin con-
^ See a similar tradition from Courland, of the giant Kinte, and his
white mare, Frost, in Grimm, p. 516.
- Grimm, p. 140. In Lower Saxony also it is customary to leave a
bunch of grain on the field for ^Yoden's horse. In the Isle of Moen a
sheaf of oats was left for his horse, that he might not by night trample on
the seed. \Yoden occasionally rides also in a chariot. Petersen, N. M.
p. 173. Grimm, p. 138.
In Oland, Hogrum parish, there lie great stones called Odin's flisor
(Odini lamellae), concerning which the story goes, that Odin being about
^