Introduction
Sleipnir is Odin's extraordinary eight-legged horse, said to be the finest and swiftest of all horses, capable of travelling between the worlds, including into the realm of the dead. His unusual origin makes him one of the most distinctive creatures of Norse mythology: he is the son of Loki himself, in female, mare form, and the giant stallion Svadilfari.
Family
- Father: Svadilfari
- Mother: Loki
- Siblings: Fenrir, Jormungandr, Hel
Origin
A giant builder offered to construct a great defensive wall around Asgard within an impossibly short time, in exchange for the sun, the moon, and the goddess Freyja as his wife, should he succeed. The gods agreed, confident the deadline could not be met, not realising the builder's horse, Svadilfari, was doing an enormous amount of the heavy work. As the deadline neared and the builder seemed likely to succeed, the gods, alarmed, demanded Loki find a solution. Loki transformed himself into a mare and lured Svadilfari away from his work, causing the builder to miss his deadline (and, when his true, giant nature was revealed, to be killed by Thor). Some time later, Loki, still in mare form, gave birth to Sleipnir, sired by Svadilfari.
Odin's mount
Sleipnir became Odin's own horse, able to gallop over land, sea and even into the air, and, crucially, to cross into the realm of the dead, a journey undertaken in the Poetic Edda's Baldrs draumar, when Odin rides Sleipnir to the underworld to consult a dead seeress about Baldr's troubling dreams.