> Can you give examples of the connection between "riding on the backs of
>animals", shamanism and Norse mythology. Of course, there's Sleipnir
>and even Pegasus, but regular people ride animals too.
Not horses with eight legs though!
Sleipnir has a counterpart in Buryat legend. A woman shaman calls an
eight-legged foal born to one of her mares "my little horse on which
I used to ride like a shamaness." [in Eliade, Shamanism]
Freyja rides on a pig (cf Baba Yaga in Russia), and of course the
myrkri(dh)a rides on a wolf; the dakinis in Tibet fly on various
magical mounts from tigers to more prosaic mules -- but flying ones.
Some Siberian shamans dance with a horse-headed stick representing
their magical steed. Add to the mix the Yakut shaman saying that "the
drum is our horse." There's a connection, too, between the World Tree
and these shamanic mounts in some Siberian traditions which have the
latter tethered to the Tree.
Max