Magical Arrows

There's nothing to tell of him till he emerged from the forest, and
found settlements coming into view. He saw a big farmstead there,
and another smaller one not very far away. It came into his mind to
try the smaller farm, though he had never done anything like that
before, so up he went to the door. Outside a man was chopping
firewood, a small man with white hair.

The old man greeted the stranger warmly and asked his name.

'I'm called the Barkman,' said Odd. 'What about you?'

He said he was called Jolf. 'You'd like to stay here overnight, I
suppose,' he said.

'Yes, I would,' said Odd the Barkman.

The old man showed him into the living-room, where there was
an old woman sitting on a chair. 'We've got a visitor,' said the old
man, 'you entertain him, I'm too busy myself.'

The old woman began to complain and said this wasn't the first
time he'd promised hospitality to people '- and nothing for us to
offer,' she said.

The old man went away, and Odd stayed behind with the old
woman. In the evening Jolf came back home and a table was laid
before them with one plate. The Barkman put down on his side a fine
knife, with two rings on it, one of gold and the other of silver.

When Jolf saw the knife he stretched out his hand for it and
examined it. 'You've got a splendid knife there, friend,' said the old
man. 'How did you come by anything so valuable?'

'When I was young,' said the Barkman, 'a number of us used to
make salt. One day a ship was driven on to the rocks just where we
were, and smashed to pieces. The crew were washed ashore very
weak, so it didn't take us long to finish them off, and I got this knife
as my share of the loot. If you should happen to have any use for this
knife, old fellow, I'll give it you.'

'The best of luck to you!' said the old man and showed it to his
wife. 'Here's something worth looking at,' he said, 'it's just as good
as my old one.'

Then they settled down to eat, and after that the Barkman was
shown to bed. They slept through the night, and when the Barkman
woke up, Jolf had disappeared and his bed was already cold.

'Wouldn't it be best for me to get up and look for breakfast
somewhere else?' he asked. But the old woman said that the old man
wanted him to wait.

About noon when the old man came home, the Barkman was
already up. Then the table was laid, with one plate on it. On his side
the old man put down three stone arrows beside the plate. These
arrows were so big and fine the Barkman thought he'd never seen
their like.

He picked one up to examine it. That's a well-made arrow/ he
said.

'It's good if you like them,' said the old man, 'because then I'll
give them to you as a present.'

The Barkman smiled, and said, 'I don't think there's any need for
me to haul these stone arrows around.'

'You can never tell when you might need them,' said the old man,
'I know that you're called Arrow-Odd and that you're the son of
Grim Hairy-Cheek of Hrafnista in the north. I know too that you've
three arrows called Gusir's Gifts, and you'll be surprised to learn
that one day you may find yourself in a situation where they'll be
useless and the stone arrows will save you.'

'Since you know without being told that my name's Odd,' he said,
'and that I've arrows called Gusir's Gifts, what you predict may well
turn out to be true. So I'll accept the gift of the arrows,' and he put
them into his arrow-bag.

'What can you tell me about this country?' asked Odd. 'Does it
have a king?'

'Yes,' said the old man, 'his name's Herraud.'

[...]

In the morning when the vikings woke up they found Vidgrip dead
and his head missing. This struck them as such a marvel they were
totally baffled and decided after some deliberation to make another
man their leader, call him Vidgrip, and have him carry their banner
during the day.

Odd and his men woke up and put on their armour. The way Odd
arranged things was this: he had a standard made, and on top of it he
put Vidgrip's head. Then both armies drew up. Odd went before his
men - he had a much smaller force - and made a speech. He called
out to the local army and asked whether they recognized the head
that was being carried before him. All the people thought it looked
like Vidgrip's head and they were dumbfounded as to how this could
be. Odd gave them a choice, either to fight him, or submit. They
thought the way things had gone, their prospects looked rather
bleak even if they wanted to try, so in the end they all submitted to
Odd. He took charge of the whole army and marched on until he
faced Alf Bjalki. Each of them had a big army, but Odd's was smaller
than Alf's. Fighting broke out right away, so fierce that Odd
thought he'd never seen such slaughter, and it wasn't long before he
realized his force had been badly reduced in numbers. 'And another
thing,' said Odd, 'while I can scythe my way right up to Alf's
banner, still I can't seem to see the man himself.'

Then one of the local men who had been with Vidgrip said to Odd,
'I don't know what's up with you that you can't see him, because
he's marching just behind his banner and never moves away from it.
If you want any proof, he's the one shooting an arrow from each of
his fingers who kills a man with every one of them.'

'I still can't see him,' said Odd.

Then the man raised his hand above Odd's head and said, 'Now
have a look, under my hand.'

At once Odd could see Alf and all the other things he had been told
about him. Odd said, 'Keep your hand like that for a while.' The
man did as he was asked.

Odd felt around for Gusir's Gifts, took one of them, set it on the
bowstring and shot it at Alf Bjalki, but Alf just put the palm of his
hand in the way and the arrow didn't bite at all.

'Off you go, the lot of you,' said Odd, 'even though none of you is
any use.'

He shot all the Gifts, and every one of them dropped into the
grass. 'I don't know,' said Odd, 'it may have come true what old Jolf
told me, that Gusir's Gifts are gone for good. So I'd better try the old
fellow's stone arrows.' He took one of them, set it on the bowstring
and shot it at Alf Bjalki. When Alf heard the whizz of the
approaching arrow he put out the palm of his hand against it, but the
arrow flew straight through and came out at the back of his head.
Odd took another arrow, set it on the bowstring and shot. Alf put up
his other hand meaning to protea his remaining eye, but the arrow
went straight for the good eye and out through the back of his
head. Still Alf didn't fall, so Odd shot the third arrow, and this one
hit Alf in the waist, and then he fell. The stone arrows the old man
had given him vanished, for as he had told Odd, they could only be
shot once and after that they would never be seen again.

The battle was soon over, for the army was routed and had started
fleeing to the city. The Priestess stood between the city gates
shooting arrows from all her fingers.

The fighting died down as the enemy began surrendering to Odd
everywhere. The temples and shrines which stood close to the town
Odd had set on fire, and everything near by he burnt.


- The Saga of Arrow-Odd (Örvar-Odds saga), Chapters 24 and 29


("Jolf, Odin in disguise, AO 24, 29" - from the List of Proper Names included with the translation)