Gullinbursti: Light from Golden Bristles

“Sindre laid a pig-skin in the furnace and requested Brok to blow the bellows, and not to stop blowing before he (Sindre) had taken out of the furnace what he had put into it.”

“That was now a boar, and its bristles were of gold.”

“to Frey he gave the boar, stating that it would run through the air and over seas, by night or by day, faster than any horse; and never could it become so dark in the night, or in the worlds of darkness, but that it would be light where this boar was present, so bright shone his bristles.”

“Frey came riding in his chariot drawn by the boar called Gullinburste or Slidrugtanne.”

In Skáldskaparmál, Loki has wagered his head that the dwarf Brok’s brother Sindre cannot make three treasures as good as those already made for Sif and the gods. In the smithy Sindre puts a pig-skin in the furnace while Brok works the bellows, and what comes out is a boar with bristles of gold. Brok gives it to the god Freyr. The same contest produces the ring Draupnir and Thor’s hammer.

Brok says it runs through the air and over the sea faster than any horse, and that wherever it is, it is light, however dark the night or the worlds of darkness. In Gylfaginning Freyr arrives at Baldr’s funeral in a chariot drawn by the boar, which Anderson calls Gullinburste or Slidrugtanne. The sources do not place the boar in any realm.

Thorpe’s glossary gives “Golden-bristles” for Gullinbursti and “cruel, fierce, savage” for the second name, Slídrugtanni. These are glosses, not settled readings.

The boar is not Sæhrímnir, the boar eaten in Valhöll; they are different animals in different stories. Freyr himself is one of the Vanir, and the Vanir homeland is the subject of Vanaheim, but no source says the boar was kept there. The brothers Brok and Sindre are dwarfs; for dwarf-lore in general see Nidavellir.