{
  "id": "sleipnir",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Sleipnir",
  "summary": "Odin's horse, \"the best of steeds\", borne by Loki to the stallion Svathilfari; Odin saddles him to ride down to Niflhel and the house of Hel in Baldrs draumar; runes were cut on his teeth. The eight legs are the Prose Edda's detail and are not mentioned in the poems.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "norse",
    "creatures",
    "horses"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "child_of",
      "target": "loki"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "odin"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "hel"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "poetic-edda"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What is Sleipnir?",
    "Who is the mother of Sleipnir?",
    "Whose horse is Sleipnir?",
    "Does Sleipnir have eight legs?",
    "Where does Odin ride Sleipnir?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Sleipnir is the best of horses: \"Of all the gods is Othin the greatest, / And Sleipnir the best of steeds\" (Grimnismol 44).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Loki is his mother: \"And Sleipnir bore he to Svathilfari\" (Hyndluljoth 42); the poem gives no account of how.",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Odin rides him to the dead: \"the saddle he laid on Sleipnir's back; / Thence rode he down to Niflhel deep\", to the high house of Hel (Baldrs draumar 2–3).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "Among the places where runes were cut are \"Sleipnir's teeth, and the straps of the sledge\" (Sigrdrifumol 15).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.92
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "Four eddic mentions — best of steeds, Loki's foal, Odin's mount to Hel, runes on his teeth.",
    "The birth story (Loki as a mare, the giant's stallion) and the eight legs are the Prose Edda's; the poems give only the parentage line."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "Who is the mother of Sleipnir?",
      "claim": "c2"
    },
    {
      "q": "Where does Odin ride Sleipnir?",
      "claim": "c3"
    },
    {
      "q": "Whose horse is Sleipnir?",
      "claim": "c1"
    },
    {
      "q": "Does Sleipnir have eight legs?",
      "claim": "c1"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Every summary says \"eight-legged\"; this object shows that the Poetic Edda never counts the legs, and gives the four stanzas that do attest the horse.",
  "confidence": 0.92,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "norse",
      "kind": "creature",
      "wikidata": "Q208010"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/sleipnir",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/sleipnir.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Sleipnir",
    "description": "Odin's horse, \"the best of steeds\", borne by Loki to the stallion Svathilfari; Odin saddles him to ride down to Niflhel and the house of Hel in Baldrs draumar; runes were cut on his teeth. The eight legs are the Prose Edda's detail and are not mentioned in the poems.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/sleipnir",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri",
        "url": "https://github.com/fjarri/poetic_edda/tree/master/chapters"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Sleipnir"
  }
}