Against a scholarly tradition that has not chosen to see this passage [from
Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar] in this way, I find the sinister, diabolical creatures who appear in the first two dreams– dark, large, and bloodthirsty– difficult to disassociate from Christianity’s interpretation of Óðinn, a cross between the old pre-Christian god and the satanic figure of medieval Catholicism. Frequently referred to in the noun phrase ‘the devil Óðinn’ (e.g.,
dyeffuolen Oden), the figure is neither wholly Christian nor wholly pagan by the close of the Middle Ages. In one post-Reformation Swedish source, for example, Óðinn has retained many of his heathen characteristics, but in a manner also consistent with his increasing identification with the devil of Christianity, he is everywhere associated with the color black: he visits humans accompanied by big black dogs and servants on black horses, riding in a coach drawn by black horses, all with eyes that burned like fire.