Gullfaxi ( Old Norse: ) is a horse in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

. Its name means "Golden mane". It was originally owned by Hrungnir, and was later given to Magni by Thor as a reward for lifting off the leg of Hrungnir, which lay over the unconscious Thor and strangled him: :'And I will give thee,' he said, 'the horse Gold-Mane, which Hrungnir possessed.' :Then

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

spake and said that Thor did wrong to give the good horse to the son of a giantess, and not to his father. ::—''Skáldskaparmál'' (17) Gullfaxi is equally fast on land, in the air and on the water, but not quite as fast as

Sleipnir In Norse mythology, Sleipnir (Old Norse: ; "slippy"Orchard (1997:151). or "the slipper"Kermode (1904:6).) is an eight-legged horse ridden by Odin. Sleipnir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional ...

, Odin's horse.

Folk tale

Gullfaxi is also the name of a horse in the modern Icelandic folk-tale '' The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder'' collected by Jón Árnason, translated into German by , then rendered into English and included in the ''Crimson Fairy Book'' (1903) compiled by Andrew Lang.

References

Horses in Norse mythology Horses in mythology Thor {{Norse-myth-stub

Folk tale

See also

References