Book 3: 'Arrow Odd'

APPENDIX D: HELGI 'ARROW ODD' WAS PRINCE OLEG OF KIEV

Most Saga Experts agree that both the semi-historical Prince Helgi 'Arrow Odd' and the more historical Prince Oleg (Helgi in Norse) of Kiev are both said to have died by the bite of a poisonous snake that crawled out from under a horse's skull, but many claim the similar deaths are likely a coincidence and the two characters are not necessarily the same. This paper shall attempt to expand upon the legends and bring us closer to the truth of whether or not Arrow Odd and Prince Oleg are one and the same man. We shall look further into the similar deaths that are depicted, first, for Arrow Odd, in Arrow Odd's Saga, a Norse saga written circa 1200 AD, perhaps three hundred years after Odd's death by poison snake bite, and second, for Prince Oleg/Helgi of Kiev, in the Rus' Primary Chronicle written circa 1100 AD, perhaps two hundred years after his death in 912 AD.

Besides the similarity in death's, both stories tell us that their death's in later years were foretold by witchcraft in their younger years.  Starting with Arrow Odd's Saga, as translated byGavin Chappell:

"There was a witch named Heid who knew how to predict the future. She was often invited to banquets to tell people their fortunes...

"Awe me not,              Odd of Jaederen,

With that rod,          Although we row.

This story will hold true,          As said by the seeress.

She knows beforehand                   All men's fate.

"You will not swim         Wide firths,

Nor go a long way       Over lands and bays,

Though the water will well       And wash over you,

You will burn Here,       at Berurjod.

"Venom-filled snake             Shall sting you

From below the                     Skull of Faxi.

The adder will bite         From below your foot,

When you are terribly               Old, my lord."

And now Prince Oleg with the Rus' Primary Chronicle, as translated by Samuel Cross 2 :

"Thus Oleg ruled in Kiev, and dwelt at peace with all nations. Now autumn came, and Oleg bethought him of his horse that he had caused to be well fed, yet had never mounted. For on one occasion he had made inquiry of the wonder-working magicians as to the ultimate cause of his death. One magician replied, "Oh Prince, it is from the steed which you love and on which you ride that you shall meet your death." Oleg then reflected and determined never to mount this horse or even to look upon it again. So he gave command that the horse should be properly fed, but never led into his presence. He thus let several years pass until he had attacked the Greeks. After he returned to Kiev, four years elapsed, but in the fifth he thought of the horse through which the magicians had foretold that he should meet his death. He thus summoned his senior squire and inquired as to the whereabouts of the horse which he had ordered to be fed and well cared for. The squire answered that he was dead. Oleg laughed and mocked the magician, exclaiming, "Soothsayers tell untruths, and their words are naught but falsehood. This horse is dead, but I am still alive."

"Then he commanded that a horse should be saddled. "Let me see his bones," said he. He rode to the place where the bare bones and skull lay. Dismounting from his horse, he laughed and remarked, "So I was supposed to receive my death from this skull?" And he stamped upon the skull with his foot. But a serpent crawled forth from it and bit him in the foot, so that in consequence he sickened and died. All the people mourned for him in great grief. They bore him away and buried him upon the hill which is called Shchekovitsa. His tomb stands there to this day, and it is called the Tomb of Oleg. Now all the years of his reign were thirty-three."