Gullinbursti

"Golden-bristled." The boar of the god Freyr. According to Skáldskaparmál the animal was fashioned by the dwarfs Brokkr and Eitri, as part of a wager they had made with Loki. Brokkr presented the various items he had made to the Æsir for judgment:

[...] to Freyr he gave the boar, saying that it could run through air and water better than any horse, and it could never become so dark with night or gloom of the Murky Regions that there should not be sufficient light where be went, such was the glow from its mane and bristles.

Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning says that Freyr rode to the funeral pyre of Baldr in a chariot pulled by Gullinbursti, but according to the skaldic poem Húsdrápa by Úlfr Uggason, he rode the animal:

The battle-bold Freyr rideth
First on the golden-bristled
Barrow-boar to the bale-fire
Of Baldr, and leads the people.

The boar is also called Slíðrugtanni.

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References

Sources

  • Gylfaginning, 49.
  • Skáldskaparmál, 7, 35.