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Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi

Skinfaxi ok Hrímfaxi

The horses of Day and Night: Skinfaxi's mane lights the earth and sky, and the foam from Hrímfaxi's bit falls each morning as dew.

Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi are the horses that carry Day and Night round the world. They appear first as test questions. In Vafþrúðnismál, the giant Vafþrúðnir tests the disguised Odin by asking the name of the steed that draws the day, and Odin answers Skinfaxi, whose "mane doth burn" Vafþrúðnismál 12. Then the steed that brings night "from East" Vafþrúðnismál 13: Hrímfaxi, the foam from whose bit "each morning" falls as "the dews in the dales" Vafþrúðnismál 14. The poem explains two everyday things, the light of day and the morning dew.

Snorri's account follows the poem closely. Allfather gave Night and Day a horse and chariot each; Night rides first with Frosty-Mane, whose foam bedews the earth, and Day follows with Sheen-Mane, who "illumines all the air and the earth from his mane" Gylfaginning 10. Snorri's contribution is the family setting and the order of the ride.

Skáldskaparmál gives each a second name or partner in a list of horses: "Hrímfaxi or Fjörsvartnir draw the Night; Skinfaxi and Gladr are the Day's horses" Skáldskaparmál 57. Whether Fjörsvartnir and Glaðr are other names for the same horses or companions is unclear from the wording.

Day's horse lights the world, separately from the sun and its own horses, Árvakr and Alsviðr. The sources keep the two pairs apart without explaining the difference.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Skinfaxi is he, the steed who for men The glittering day doth draw; The best of horses to heroes he seems, And brightly his mane doth burn.
Vafþrúðnismál 12 Odin names the horse of day in his contest with the giant.
Hrimfaxi name they the steed that anew Brings night for the noble gods; Each morning foam from his bit there falls, And thence come the dews in the dales.
Vafþrúðnismál 14 The horse of night and the origin of dew.
Night rides before with the horse named Frosty-Mane, and on each morning he bedews the earth with the foam from his bit. The horse that Day has is called Sheen-Mane, and he illumines all the air and the earth from his mane.
Gylfaginning 10 Snorri's prose version of the same pair.

Myths with Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi

Odin's contest of wisdom with Vafþrúðnir Against Frigg's advice, Odin goes in disguise to the wisest of the giants and stakes his head on a contest of questions about the creation, the gods and the end of the world. He wins with a question only he can answer. Sun, Moon, Night and Day How the Norse sources explain the sky's clock: Night and Day ride round the world on two horses, the children of Mundilfari drive the sun and moon, and two wolves chase them until the end of the world.

Related

Dagr Day personified: son of Night and the bright Dellingr, he rides round the earth behind his mother on the horse Skinfaxi, whose mane lights the world. Nótt Night personified: a dark giant's daughter who rides around the earth on the horse Hrímfaxi, whose bit-foam falls as dew; mother of Day and of Earth. Árvakr and Alsviðr Árvakr ok Alsviðr The two horses that pull the sun across the sky, cooled by an 'iron cool' that the gods set under their yokes. Sól The sun as a goddess: daughter of Mundilfari and sister of the Moon, she drives the sun's horses across the sky with a wolf at her heels. Vafþrúðnir The all-knowing giant whom Odin, disguised as Gagnráðr, challenges to a contest of wisdom with their heads at stake. He loses to a question only Odin could answer.