Indo-European Poetry and Myth

(Il. 6. 38–41, 11. 159–62, 15. 452; MBh. 6. 84. 12; 7. 88. 49, 93. 28). A horse may itself be wounded or killed (Il. 8. 81, 16. ...

the Trojan War would have been terminated prematurely. In Roman legend the Romans and Albans agreed to let a combat between thei ...

Doom and downfall On two occasions in the Iliad Zeus makes drops of blood fall from the sky as a portent of death. The first is ...

And in the Sha ̄h-na ̄ma: ‘when the time arrives for a blow to strike a man, his mind is distracted and his senses go astray’ (L ...

$μων, and with the same verb MBh. 9. 10. 54 rudhiram ̇ vaman, 10. 9. 3 vamantam ̇ rudhiram ̇ vaktra ̄d, cf. Rm. 4. 16. 20, 47. ...

knowledge (19. 405). Dron ̇ a’s horses shed tears when he is about to die.^125 Sigurd’s horse Grani hung its head over the slain ...

natural sequel to death in battle and left without its actualization being reported, though with a hint of the gratification tha ...

taking all his victims’ heads back to the king as proof of his kills. Greek heroes do not drink their enemies’ blood, but it is ...

SIMILES Our initial survey of similes in Chapter 2 may now be augmented by a collection of some types employed in battle context ...

kenning for ‘warrior’ both in early Welsh and in Norse poetry.^139 ‘A golden oak was the outstanding Móen’, an early Irish eulog ...

THE HERO’S FUNERAL If there is one thing on which all human societies agree, it is that a death is not complete without a funera ...

are skilfully walled up in the barrow together with rings, jewels, and gold (3160–8). Harald’s horse and arms are buried with hi ...

with their weapons and horse and a tumulus was raised. Pagan Prussian nobles were still cremated or interred with horses, male a ...

his wife twice, his mother, and his sister-in-law Helen (22. 477–514; 24. 724– 75). In the Indian epics we have, for example, la ...

more poignant moment is the voluntary death of the man’s wife. This reflects a custom practised in a number of ancient Indo-Euro ...

fifty women in one town hanged themselves on account of their husbands’ deaths.^160 For Germanic peoples the oldest testimony is ...

inscribed in the Ogam script. An Ossetic story relates that the Boratas sent an announcement round to all the villages saying th ...

whole Hunnish nation rode round his bier and sang his praises.^167 Following the construction of Beowulf ’s tumulus twelve warri ...

Elegy on an Indo-European hero Urukleves now I call to mind, the son of valiant Seghekleves, who with his great thirsty spear sl ...

Bibliography A, A,Vergleichende Rätselforschungen, 3 vols., FF (=Folklore Fellows) Communications vol. 4 nos. 26–8 (Hels ...