Cite as: Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 123 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 53)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 930.
notes: In 7 this stanza occurs before Ævdr 53, following the sequence of the prose narrative, while in 471 it occurs after Ævdr 54. According to the prose saga (Ǫrv 1888, 112-17) Oddr and his kinsmen Sigurðr and Guðmundr travel south from Hrafnista one spring to go raiding in Southern Europe. They find themselves in Aquitaine, where they encounter Christians. (In 7 Oddr’s encounter with Christianity comes in Sicily, where he is baptised by an abbot named Hugi. He then travels to Aquitaine.) Although the versions of the saga differ on this point, in all versions Oddr fights against a group of assailants who threaten the Christians. In 7 they are four chieftains, in the other mss four men who attack a religious procession and cut off a bishop’s head with long knives. This incident is also mentioned in Ǫrv 37/5-8.
texts: ‹Ǫrv 123›
editions: Skj Anonyme digte og vers [XIII]: E. 10. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ǫrvar-Oddssaga IX 53 (AII, 315; BII, 335); Skald II, 179; Ǫrv 1888, 117, 205, Ǫrv 1892, 64-5, 99, FSGJ 2, 356; Edd. Min. 57.
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