A cast triangular mount or buckle-plate with pierced hinge-lugs to the forward edge, ornamented with a high-relief design of a horse in profile with arched neck and notched mane, punched-point detail to the saddle and rosette to the haunch; each leg shown divided at the end to provide the horse with eight legs.

PROVENANCE:
Ex Foster collection; acquired in the 1950s; thence by descent.

FOOTNOTES:
Sleipnir is the name of the horse ridden by Odin (Oðinn). It is the offspring of the god Loki, and Svaðilfari, a supernatural horse; it is able to travel across land and sea and pass into the realm of Hel, the goddess of the Underworld. Its eight-legged form appears in some Viking-age art, such as the picture-stones on the island of Gotland in the Baltic.