Örvar-Oddr

Örvar-Oddr (Old Norse: Ǫrvar-Oddr [ˈɔrvɑr-ˌodːr̩], "Arrow-Odd" or "Arrow's Point") is a legendary hero about whom an anonymous Icelander wrote a fornaldarsaga in the latter part of the 13th century.

In order to thwart the prediction, he killed his horse, buried it deep in the ground and left his home intending never to return again.

Örvar-Oddr travelled in the South fighting against the corsairs of the Mediterranean, he was baptised in Sicily, was shipwrecked and arrived alone in the Holy Land.

The saga includes several stories, such as the voyage of Ottar from Hålogaland to Bjarmaland, the legend of Hjalmar's foster-brother (originally named Söte), Starkaðr, Ketil Höing, Odysseus and Polyphemus, Sigurd Jorsalfare and the Rus' ruler Oleg of Novgorod (the attack on Bjalkaland).

Oleg's legendary death from "the skull of a horse" became the subject of one of the best known ballads in the Russian language, published by Alexander Pushkin in 1826.

At the beginning of the 19th century, historians, literary scholars, and geographers believed that Oddr's fate was connected to the Norwegian Rogaland.

[14] The settlement of Berurjóðr (Berglud), the island of Eikund (Eigerøy), and the historical region of Jadar (Jæren) are located in the Norwegian province of Rogaland, which was inhabited by Rugii in the Middle Ages.

Eikund and Eikundarsund were some of the oldest geographical names in Norway and are already found in the Óláfs saga helga, written in the 13th century by the Icelandic author Snorri Sturluson.