Danish folklore Danish folklore consists of folk tales, legends, songs, music, dancing, popular beliefs, myths and traditions communicated by the inhabitants of towns and villages across the country, often passed on from generation to generation by word of mo ...

, a helhest ( Danish " Hel

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

") is a three-legged horse associated with Hel. Various Danish phrases are recorded that refer to the horse. The Helhest is associated with death and illness, and it is mentioned in folklore as having been spotted in various locations in Denmark.

Folklore

The horse figures into a number of Danish phrases as recent as the 19th century, such as "''han går som en helhest''" ("he walks like a hel-horse") for a male who "blunders in noisily". The helhest is sometimes described as going "around the churchyard on his three legs, he fetches Death", and from

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

, a phrase is recorded that, in time of plague, "die (corrected by Grimm from ''der'') Hel rides about on a three-legged horse, destroying men".Grimm (1883:844). 19th century scholar

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Old English language, Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated hi ...

connects the Danish phrase "he gave death a pack of oats" when an individual survives a near-fatal disease to notions of the Helhest, considering the oats either an offering or a bribe.Thorpe (1851:209). According to folklore, the

Aarhus Cathedral Aarhus Cathedral () is a cathedral in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the longest and tallest church in the country, at in length and in height. The construction of Aarhus Cathedral began in the 12th century and it is the main edifice of the diocese of ...

yard at times features the Hel-horse. A tale recorded in the 19th century details that, looking through his window at the cathedral one evening, a man yelled "What horse is outside?" A man sitting beside him said "It is perhaps the Hel-horse." "Then I will see it!" exclaimed the man, and upon looking out the window he grew deathly pale, but would not detail afterward what he had seen. Soon thereafter he grew sick and died. At the

Roskilde Cathedral Roskilde Cathedral (), in the city of Roskilde on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark, is a cathedral of the Lutheranism, Lutheran Church of Denmark. The cathedral is one of the most important churches in D ...

, people in former times would spit on a narrow stone where a Helhest was said to be buried.Vicary (1884:110). Legend dictates that "in every churchyard in former days, before any human body was buried in it, a living horse was interred. This horse re-appears and is known by the name of 'Hel-horse.'" 19th century scholar

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

theorizes that, prior to

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

, the helhest was originally the steed of the goddess Hel.

Notes

References

* Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1883). '' Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Stallybrass''. Volume II. London: George Bell and Sons. * Thorpe, Benjamin (1851).
Northern Mythology, Compromising the Principal Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands: Compiled from Original and Other Sources
'. In three Volumes. Scandinavian Popular Traditions and Superstitions, Volume 2. Lumley. * Vicary, J. F. (1884).
A Danish Parsonage
'. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. {{Scandinavian folklore Legendary horses Scandinavian folklore Danish folklore Horses in Norse mythology Danish legendary creatures Legendary creatures with absent body parts

Folklore

See also

Notes

References