Book 3: 'Arrow Odd'

6.0 HILDER THE GIANT

CHAPTER SIX

HILDER THE GIANT (Circa 856 AD)

"This is taken pretty literally from Arrow Odd's Saga,

Perhaps a bit too literally, but it seems to follow Sinbad the Sailor,

Which is interesting because Oddi would have visited Baghdad

Just after Sinbad's time, an Arab saga feeding a Norse saga."

Brian Howard Seibert

(856 AD)  "I've been gone two weeks?" Oddi asked Asmund as they sat around their campfire on Varg Island. "I just went into the cave and came right back out again."

"No," Asmund assured him. "You've been gone two weeks." And Oddi's men all agreed with Asmund and told Oddi he was gone two weeks. "Do you have any recollection of it at all?" Asmund inquired.

"No," Oddi said. "I just remember swimming into the cave, leaving the gold, and swimming right back out again."

"No more Giantland for you, my friend," Asmund warned. "Something happened in that cave that you can't remember and you're not going back."

After their supper Oddi said, "I'm tired and I'm going to bed," and he went into his awning and realized that he had no bed. Just a warm fur on some straw. But he knew that and he shook his head and asked himself, 'Why did I expect a bed?' But he quickly fell asleep on his fur and he had a dream:

Oddi entered the submerged cave entrance and swam ahead and up until he broke the surface of the pool inside the cave. All was dark except for a shaft of light filtering in through an air hole. There were no torches lit and the place seemed deserted. Oddi could see faint light at the other end of the cave and he guessed that he would find an entrance there. He walked across the cave and he put his offering of gold wergild into a small grotto at the side of the cave's entrance. He then stepped out into a sunny wood and he continued on until he came to a crag, and some big ravines, where a river fell in noisy waterfalls. He wondered how anyone could get across, and he saw no way forward. He had just sat down when something caught him up and lifted him into the air. A huge bird had come flying at Oddi and snatched him up with its claws so fast that he could not protect himself from it. "You're in Giantland now," Oddi thought, incredulously. The creature flew with Oddi to some cliffs and landed on a grassy ledge. Here its young waited. When it let Oddi loose, he tumbled into a nest and bowled over some chicks that were almost as big as he was.

Oddi was left alone with the vulture's young in the nest. There was a high cliff above, while a sheer drop was underneath. Oddi could see no way to escape without risking his life and jumping into the river that the waterfalls spilled into. The chicks were still unfledged. The vulture was rarely home in the nest, as it was always out looking for prey. Oddi tied up the beaks of the young and concealed himself in a rock cleft behind the nest. The vulture returned with fish and birds and human flesh, and all sorts of animals and livestock. It even began carrying cooked meat there. When the vulture left, Oddi came out and took the food but he concealed himself during feedings.

One day Oddi saw a great giant rowing in a stone boat towards the nest. The giant shouted and said: "An evil bird is nesting there, and she has been stealing away my freshly boiled meat day after day. I shall avenge myself somehow. When I take the oxen of the king, I did not mean that a bird should have them."

Oddi stood up and killed the chicks and called to the giant: "Here is all that you are looking for, and I have taken care of it."

The giant went into the nest and took his meat and bore it to the boat. Then he said, "Where is the little boy that I saw here? Don't be scared, step out and come with me for your reward." Oddi showed himself then, and the giant took him and put him in the boat. He said: "How shall I kill this beast?"