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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters

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Speaker 2: in time. Given the tomorrow's core episode of Stuff to

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Speaker 2: Blow Your Mind focuses on the horse hoof and at

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Speaker 2: least one legendary account of exceptional horse anatomy, I thought

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Speaker 2: it fitting to discuss Sleipnir, the fabulous eight legged steed

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Speaker 2: of the Norse god Odin. In the Old Norse collection

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Speaker 2: of poems, the poetic Edda slap Near is described as

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Speaker 2: the best of horses, swifter than all other mortal and

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Speaker 2: divine steeds. The horses eight legs propelled it at great

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Speaker 2: speeds across water, land, air and ice, even to the

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Speaker 2: gates of Hell. In one account quote, then Othan rose

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Speaker 2: the enchanter old and the saddle he laid on Sleipner's back.

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Speaker 2: Thence rode he down to nithel Diek, and the hound

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Speaker 2: he met that came from Hell. Bloody he was on

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Speaker 2: his breast before at the father of magic. He howled

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Speaker 2: from Afar forward rode Othan the earth resounded till the

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Speaker 2: house so high of hell he reached. This is via

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Speaker 2: the Henry Adams Bellows translation of the poetic Getta nineteen

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Speaker 2: thirty six. As for Sleipner's parentage, well, it's a bit tricky.

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Speaker 2: As Carol Rose explains in Giants, Monsters and Dragons, the

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Speaker 2: trickster god Loki took on the form of a mare

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Speaker 2: and made it with the magical giant stallion Savadolfari, whose

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Speaker 2: giant master was tasked with building a wall around Asgard.

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Speaker 2: The unnamed giant agreed to finish the wall in but

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Speaker 2: three winters, all for the cost of well, the sun,

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Speaker 2: the moon, and the goddess Freya's hand in marriage. Now,

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Speaker 2: the Norse gods the assier, thought they should probably try

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Speaker 2: install completion a bit. After all, they don't want to

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Speaker 2: give up the sun, the moon, and the hand in

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Speaker 2: marriage of the goddess Freya. And so they turned to Loki,

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Speaker 2: who took on the form of a beautiful mare to

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Speaker 2: distract the giant laborer's steed, and hey, it seemed to work.

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Speaker 2: The giant's progress was stalled because he had to spend

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Speaker 2: a whole day chasing after his lusty stallion. That was

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Speaker 2: chasing after this beautiful mayre. As a result, he did

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Speaker 2: not win the Sun, the Moon, and Freya's hand in marriage,

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Speaker 2: and his resulting quest for vengeance only brought about his

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Speaker 2: own death at the hands or rather the hammer of Thor.

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Speaker 2: But also during all this, Loki did manage to find

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Speaker 2: himself impregnated in the form of a horse, and thus

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Speaker 2: gave birth to the miraculous steed slept near one of

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Speaker 2: Loki's many monstrous children. The horse became the chosen steed

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Speaker 2: of Odin and is a common feature in old depictions

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Speaker 2: of the Norse king of the Gods. As Judith tar

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Speaker 2: explored in a twenty eighteen post for tour dot com,

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Speaker 2: academics have made various interpretations of those eight legs, ranging

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Speaker 2: from the notion of four shadow legs then enable him

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Speaker 2: to move across air and water, to the interpretation that

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Speaker 2: the eight legs represent the legs of pallbearers carrying the dead.

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Speaker 2: After all, Sleipner was able to carry Odin to Nifflheim,

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Speaker 2: the world of Fog. Tune in for additional episodes of

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Speaker 2: the Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email

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Speaker 2: us at contact at stuffed to Bole your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.