Once the contest of gifts is judged, with Odin, Thor and Freyr sitting as arbiters, Gullinbursti is given to Freyr alongside Draupnir for Odin and Mjolnir for Thor, and the gods rule that Mjolnir's protective power against giants makes Thor's gift the winning one, so Loki keeps his head only through a technicality about how it may be removed without touching his neck.
Gullinbursti becomes Freyr's mount and, in some tellings, is harnessed to pull his chariot, valued for two qualities beyond his beauty: his golden bristles glow brightly enough to light the way through the darkest night, useful to a god whose domain includes fertility, sunlight and the growing season, and his legs carry him faster than any horse, across land, over water and through the air alike, so that no journey is beyond his reach. Some later folkloric and scholarly commentary connects Gullinbursti to wider Germanic and Scandinavian traditions of the boar as a symbol of fertility and protection in battle, including the boar crested helmets described in Beowulf and other early medieval sources, though the Prose Edda itself ties him specifically and only to this one forging story and to Freyr's subsequent ownership.