What can Krok, a figure of Czech mythology, have in common, if only highly hypothetically, with the Old Norse hero Arrow Odd?
Abstract
The article deals with a question of whether is possible (as Petr Charvát has recently done, but Stanislav Doležal refused) to identify the figure of mythical Krok with the alleged king of Alamanni - Crocus, who supported the usurpation of Constantine the Great in Britain. Charvát's thesis is built upon resemblances between Czech and Longobards origo gentis from which he deduces that the former developed under the influence of the latter and during this process the figure of Crocus was absorbed.
To some extent, this idea can be supported. The mobility of the heroes of the Germanic oral tradition is well known so the presence of Crocus in the songs of some Germans that came into contact with the Slavs occupying Bohemian is actually possible.
However, the possibility of transferring this substance to the Slavic environment is more problematic, but even here we can operate with an eventual parallel, which could be the bizarre circumstances of death, as shared by the Kiev prince Oleg and the Nordic hero Arrow Odd.