Was wondering if anyone had any insights into this. The in-game book "The Dragon War" states that the ancient nords worshiped animal spirits before they developed their more Aedric religion, though it also states that scholars believe they were, in fact, worshiping the aedra, just in a different form. My question is, then, which animal spirit equates to which god?

The spirits: the hawk, wolf, snake, moth, owl, whale, bear, fox, dragon. These are the shapes found on the claw doors and/or the turning-pillar puzzles (though with a dragonfly replacing the moth, for some reason), you may note. Also, there are nine of them, equal to the 8 divines + Shor.

The dragon is pretty clearly Akatosh, for obvious reasons.

The moth has a great deal of significance in lore, representing ancestors and destiny. I've seen people make a Pelenial-moth connection (can anyone explain? Besides one odd MK reference, I've never seen the connection in anything pseudo-official), and so I assume the moth symbolizes Shor/Lorkhan.

The bridge to Sovngarde is made of whalebone, and Tsun guards that bridge. If Tsun is Zenithar, as is sometimes theorized, this might mean Zenithar is also the whale, but that's grasping at straws.

The others? No idea. I've got guesses I can toss around, but they're based entirely on my own cultural biases (ie, "owls are wise"). Looking for anything in lore that gives any kind of weight here.

I'd say you're onto something. It never occured to me to count the number of totems on the locks.

We had a fruitful discussion about this a while back in http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1296096-the-whalebone-bridge. Worth checking out.

Thanks for the link, just read through it. Interesting to see a few people came to same conclusion as I did re: Tsun/Zenithar as the whale.

The images you posted certainly help; the division into genders is very helpful. Where did those come from, by the way? Do you know where a higher res version can be found? What's the context of those?

It's pretty clear Kynareth is the hawk, since the nordic Kyne is an aggressive sky deity.

Reading through the last thread, something probably unrelated struck me: Doesn't that sound an awful lot like how the two brothers in the companions, Farkas and Vilkas, are described? Upon checking out the hunch, there appears to be nine active members of the companions before the PC joins them, three female and six male, same as the makeup of the 8+1. Just an interesting coincidence most like, not sure what, if anything, there's to make of it.

EDIT: There are also 16 members of the College of Winterhold including the Auger of Dunlain, same as the usual number of Daedra. There are 5 female members of the college, 10 male, and one without a gender (the Auger). There are 5 or 6 female Daedra (depending on Mephala's mood) and 9-10 male, with one that doesn't take a gendered form (Hermaeus Mora).

Just an observation, no idea if it's supposed to mean anything or not.