Urien of Rheged is praised in one of the poems ascribed to Taliesin as ‘most
bountiful of Christians: much you bestow on the men of this land. As you
gather in, so you give away.’^49
In the Germanic poetic traditions the giving of gold, especially rings or
pieces broken from rings, is a commonplace motif. ‘Giver of rings’, ‘breaker
of treasure’, and the like are formulaic phrases for kings and lords: Old
English be ̄ahgifa, be ̄aga brytta, sinces brytta, Old Saxon bôggebo, Norse bauga
deilir, spillir bauga, hringbroti. The poems often refer to their engagement in
this activity.^50 In the Hildebrandslied (33–5) Hiltibrant, discovering that the
warrior facing him in battle is his son Hadubrant, takes off his arm gold rings
that the Hun king had given him and offers them to his son to honour him.
A more singular demonstration of royal generosity appears in parallel Indic
and Irish myths. A brahmin asked King S ́ibi for one of his eyes, and the king
gladly gave him both. Indra restored his sight because he had always spoken
the truth and granted petitions. The Irish poet Athirne asked King Echaid for
his eye (he only had one), and Echaid at once plucked it out and handed it
over; God afterwards gave him back both his eyes.^51
THE HEROHis exceptional natureWhen we read the Iliad we are impressed by Achilles’ strongly emotional
character; we are persuaded that he must have above average strength,
stamina, and fighting ability because of his success in battle and the fear he
inspires; we would be daunted to meet him face to face; yet we are not
conscious of an uncrossable gulf separating him from human beings as we
know them. Alexander the Great thought it feasible to be a second Achilles.
The signs are, however, that the Homeric epic –– and this is the key to its
greatness –– has made a point of humanizing the heroes and portraying them
naturalistically, suppressing the more outlandish and prodigious features that
some of them may have had in earlier tradition. Only occasionally do traces
of this older picture show through. Ajax in particular is called πελ.ριο,
(^49) Posidonius F 170 Theiler (Strabo 4. 2. 3, Ath. 152de); Táin (L) 3287–90; Canu Taliesin 3.
1–5; Clancy (2003), 40.
(^50) Beowulf 80, 1487, 1719 f., 1749 f., 1756 f., 1929–31, 1970, 2383, 2635; Widsith 73 f.;
Helgakviða Hundingsbana A 9. 5–8; Atlakviða 37. 7, Rígsþula 38. 4–8, Hyndlulióð 28. 3;
cf. Schramm (1957), 101.
(^51) Ja ̄taka 499; Talland Etair, ed. W. Stokes, RC 8 (1887), 48; compared by Dillon (1975), 89.
- King and Hero 425