Odin is said to ride around on an eight-legged horse, Sleipnir (*slippy; the sliding one)*, which he rode to the underworld to try to bring his son Baldur back for the dead. In my readings I came across the suggestion that the 8-legged horse might have symbolized the funeral bier carried by four pallbearers. It would make sense then that this horse is capable of bringing the rider into the underworld. It's fitting for Odin because he seems to be as much a god of death as he is a god of war, magic or justice. (He determines the fate of battles and the fallen warriors join him in Valhalla. Sometimes the better side loses if Odin determines he needs them at his side in the battle of the world's end.) And I hear in many shamanic traditions throughout the world an eight-legged horse is the vehicle by which the shaman travels to the spirit worlds. The more I learn about pagan religions the more examples I see of purposeful symbolism in the myths. So it seems they were intended to be taken a lot less literally than those of the Abrahamic faiths. The story of Sleipnir's origins is amusing as well. Someday I'll write it up here.