Helhest

The horse figures into a number of Danish phrases as recent as the 19th century, such as "han går som en helhest" ("he walks like a hel-horse") for a male who "blunders in noisily".

The helhest is sometimes described as going "around the churchyard on his three legs, he fetches Death", and from Schleswig, a phrase is recorded that, in time of plague, "die (corrected by Grimm from der) Hel rides about on a three-legged horse, destroying men".

A tale recorded in the 19th century details that, looking through his window at the cathedral one evening, a man yelled "What horse is outside?"

[3] Legend dictates that "in every churchyard in former days, before any human body was buried in it, a living horse was interred.

'"[2] 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm theorizes that, prior to Christianization, the helhest was originally the steed of the goddess Hel.