Title: Örvar-Odds saga (The Saga of Arrow-Odd)

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Description:

The story of Arrow-Odd (Örvar-Oddr), a legendary hero from northern Norway who was granted a supernaturally long life (300 years) by a prophecy given by a seeress during his childhood, much to his displeasure. The prophecy also states that he will never be able to settle in one place and that his death will be caused by the skull of his horse, Faxi, there on the farm where he was raised. After burying said horse in a deep pit covered with boulders to avoid this fate, he sets out to become a viking, defeating numerous other vikings infamous for their ferocity in battle and winning himself great renown and riches. His longevity, immortality (he is unable to die until his fated return to the place of his birth), and restlessness result in him travelling all over the world, to places both real and mythological, giving us a peek at fantastical medieval geography in the minds of 13th–14th century Icelanders. After many adventures full of both legendary feats and tragedies, he returns to the farmstead of his fostering on his way to his ancestral property at Hrafnista, and falls victim to a snake that emerges from the horse skull, right after mocking the old prophecy one last time. He then composes a death poem about his life and requests to be burned in a stone coffin. Örvar-Odds saga is a fornaldarsaga, or "saga of ancient times," also called legendary sagas, and is a part of a cycle about a family tied to a region called Hrafnista in Norway, called Ramsta/Ramstad in the modern day. Örvar-Oddr is the third saga protagonist of this cycle which totals in four sagas, which are referred to as the Hrafnistamannasögur ("sagas of the men of Hrafnista").