Orvar-Odd
Encyclopedia
Icelander
Icelander can refer to:*A person from the country of Iceland, see Icelanders.*Icelander , by Dustin Long, published in 2006 by McSweeney's.*Íslendingur , a replica viking ship whose name means Icelander...
wrote a fornaldarsaga in the latter part of the 13th century. Örvar-Odds saga, the Saga of Örvar-Odd, became very popular and contains old legends and songs. He also appears in Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
and, concerning the battle on Samsø
Samsø
Samsø is a Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 4,300 inhabitants called Samsingers and is 114 km² in area. Due to its central location, the island was used during the Viking Age as a meeting place...
, in Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
.
Oddr was the son of Grim Lodinkinni and the grandson of Ketil Höing (both of whom have their own sagas) of Hålogaland
Hålogaland
Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the mediaeval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a petty kingdom extending between Namdalen in Nord-Trøndelag and Lyngen in Troms.-Etymology:...
. When he was an infant, a völva
Völva
A vǫlva or völva is a shamanic seeress in Norse paganism, and a recurring motif in Norse mythology....
predicted that he would be killed by his own horse Faxi, at the place where he was born, at the age of 300.
In order to undo the prediction, he killed his horse, buried it deep in the ground and left his home intending never to return again. As he was leaving, his father gave him some magic arrows which soon earned him the cognomen arrow. After a voyage to Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...
, Bjarmaland
Bjarmaland
Bjarmaland was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas up to the Viking Age and - beyond - in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually seen to have referred to the southern shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina River and - presumably - some of the...
and Jotunheim, he fought successfully against several Vikings.
However, when he encountered the Swedish champion Hjalmar
Hjálmar
- Current :*Þorsteinn Einarsson - Guitar and vocals*Sigurður Halldór Guðmundsson - Keyboards and vocals*Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson - Guitar* Valdimar Kolbeinn Sigurjónsson - Bass* Helgi Svavar Helgason - Percussion- Former :...
, he met his match. The fight was even and the two warriors not only became friends, but entered sworn brotherhood.
The two heroes fought many battles together (for more see Hjalmar
Hjálmar
- Current :*Þorsteinn Einarsson - Guitar and vocals*Sigurður Halldór Guðmundsson - Keyboards and vocals*Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson - Guitar* Valdimar Kolbeinn Sigurjónsson - Bass* Helgi Svavar Helgason - Percussion- Former :...
), until after the famous battle of Samsø
Samsø
Samsø is a Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 4,300 inhabitants called Samsingers and is 114 km² in area. Due to its central location, the island was used during the Viking Age as a meeting place...
against the sons of Arngrim
Arngrim
Arngrim was a berserker, who figures in Hervarar saga, Gesta Danorum, Lay of Hyndla, a number of Faroese ballads and Orvar-Odd's saga in Norse mythology.-Hervarar saga:...
, Örvar-Oddr had to bring the dead Hjalmar (killed by Angantyr
Angantyr
Angantyr was the name of three characters from the same line in Norse mythology, and who appear in Hervarar saga, in Gesta Danorum and Faroese ballads....
) to Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 16,231 inhabitants in 1991.As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre...
and his betrothed Ingeborg, the daughter of the Swedish king.
Örvar-Oddr travelled in the South fighting against the corsairs of the Mediterranean, had himself baptised, was shipwrecked and arrived alone in the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
.
Dressed as an old man, he arrived in Hunaland
Hunaland
Hunaland and its people are mentioned several times in the Poetic Edda, and in the Fornaldarsagas.Its origins are partly the old Frankish kingdom and partly in the Huns....
, where his true identity was soon revealed due to his heroic actions. After defeating the king of Bjalkaland ("pelt country"), who used to pay tribute to the king of Hunaland, he married the princess Silkisif and became the next king.
After all this, he became homesick and went back home. Walking over the grave of Faxi, he mocked the old prophecy, but tripped over the skull of a horse from which a snake appeared. The snake bit him and he died.
The saga includes several stories, such as the voyage of Ottar from Hålogaland
Ottar from Hålogaland
Ohthere of Hålogaland was a Viking adventurer from Hålogaland. Around 890 AD he travelled to England, where Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, had his tales written down....
to Bjarmaland, the legend of Hjalmar
Hjálmar
- Current :*Þorsteinn Einarsson - Guitar and vocals*Sigurður Halldór Guðmundsson - Keyboards and vocals*Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson - Guitar* Valdimar Kolbeinn Sigurjónsson - Bass* Helgi Svavar Helgason - Percussion- Former :...
's foster-brother (originally named Söte), Starkaðr, Ketil Höing, Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
and Polyphemus
Polyphemus
Polyphemus is the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes. His name means "much spoken of" or "famous". Polyphemus plays a pivotal role in Homer's Odyssey.-In Homer's Odyssey:...
, Sigurd Jorsalfare and the Rus' ruler Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the early 10th century....
(the attack on Bjalkaland).
The motive of Örvar-Oddr's mocking the prophecy and death has parallels in the Primary Chronicle
Primary Chronicle
The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
, which describes the manner of Oleg's death in similar terms. Oleg's death from "the skull of a horse" is the subject of one of the best known ballads in the Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, written by Alexander Pushkin in 1826.