Grani
Encyclopedia
In Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...

, Grani is a horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

 owned by the hero Sigurd
Sigurd
Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...

. He is the horse that Sigurd receives through advice from an old man (Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

). Grani is a descendant of Odin's own steed, Sleipnir
Sleipnir
In Norse mythology, Sleipnir is an eight-legged horse. Sleipnir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson...

.

Attestations

In chapter 13 of Völsunga saga
Volsunga saga
The Völsungasaga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan . It is largely based on epic poetry...

, the hero Sigurðr is on his way to a wood when he meets a long-bearded old man he had never seen before. Sigurd tells the old man that he is going to choose a horse, and asks the old man to come with him to help him decide. The old man says that they should drive the horses down to the river Busiltjörn. The two drive the horses down into the deeps of Busiltjörn, and all of the horses swim back to land but a large, young, and handsome gray horse that no one had ever mounted. The grey-bearded old man says that the horse is from "Sleipnir's kin" and that "he must be nourished heedfully, for it will be the best of all horses". The old man vanishes. Sigurd names the horse Grani, and the narrative adds that the old man was none other than Odin.

Archeological evidence

Grani is believed to be depicted on several of the Sigurd stones
Sigurd stones
The Sigurd stones form a group of seven or eight runestones and one image stone that depict imagery from the legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer...

, which depict imagery from the legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer, including the inscription on Sö 327 in Gök, Södermanland County
Södermanland County
Södermanland County is a county or län on the south east coast of Sweden. It borders the counties of Östergötland, Örebro, Västmanland, Uppsala, Stockholm and to the Baltic sea....

, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. In Norse iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

, the depiction of a horse carrying a chest was sufficient to represent Grani carrying the treasure after Sigurd had slain the dragon Fafnir
Fafnir
In Norse mythology, Fáfnir or Frænir was a son of the dwarf king Hreidmar and brother of Regin and Ótr. In the Volsunga saga, Fáfnir was a dwarf gifted with a powerful arm and fearless soul. He guarded his father's house of glittering gold and flashing gems...

. This is supported by a kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...

 in a Norse poem that refers to "Grani's beautious burden," indicating a common understanding of the motif
Motif (narrative)
In narrative, a motif is any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. Through its repetition, a motif can help produce other narrative aspects such as theme or mood....

.

Modern influence

In Wagner's Ring cycle the name (as "Grane") is given to Brunhilde's horse.

Another, more modern reference, Is in Digimon Tamers (Digimon Season 3 in the American dub). Grani was the name of the Refitted 'Ark', which Gallantmon rode in a jet-board style during the D-Reaper Arc. It was directly stated in episode 47 that they named it after Sigfried's (Sigfried is the German name used for Sigurd) horse, Grani.
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