Árvakr and Alsviðr

According to the eddic poem Grímnismál, Árvakr ("Early-riser") and Alsviðr ("All-swift") are the two horses who pull Sól, the Sun, across the sky:

Arvakr and Alsvid,

theirs 'tis up hence

fastening the sun to draw:

under their shoulder

the gentle powers, the Aesir,

have concealed an iron-coolness.

The chariot of the sun was made by the gods from the glowing stuff which flew out of Múspell. The iron under their yokes is the shield Svalinn. In Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson says that the gods set two wind-bags under the shoulders to cool them.

The eddic poem Sigrdrífumál mentions that there are runes cut into Árvakr's ears and in Alsviðr's hooves.

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