Learnings: The Horse, or Hestr

One of the Södermanland Runestones / 11th cent.

Horses were known for transporting people and goods. Scandinavians also granted them the power to move between the worlds of the living and the dead. Sleipnir, the mount of Odin, could carry the All-father between worlds. This was why, in skaldic poetry, connections were drawn between horses and boats, which also represented gateways between worlds.

Horses were occasionally depicted on runestones as a mount for warriors, divine or human, much like on the runestone depicted here. It holds the engravings "raised by four men named Bjôrn, Vébjôrn, Hrafni, and Ketilbjôrn in memory of their father Geirbjôrn".