corn without bending them,^56 and another who can see over vast distances.^57
The Welsh examples come in a long list of Arthur’s warriors, many of whom
have other wondrous peculiarities. In what follows, a quest is launched for
Culhwch’s unseen love, the giant’s daughter Olwen, and six men are selected
to go on it, each having a special talent: one could guide people through lands
he had never seen before, one could make them invisible, one knew all
languages, and so on. This is a typical story type, what Karl Meuli called the
Helfermärchen, in which a band of people embark on an adventure, having
among them certain individuals with exceptional abilities, and each of these
enables them to overcome a particular danger.^58 This, I take it, is the type of
narrative to which such persons properly belong. It is an ancient type, but we
are not in a position to claim Indo-European antiquity for it.
Birth and infancyTo account for the exceptional nature of the hero an exceptional parentage
was often invoked, usually a divine father or mother. But their parenting
skills, if any, were not called in aid. In many cases the child was separated from
his parents at an early age.
A common story motif, based on a real-life practice, is that the child is
exposed, or an attempt is made to dispose of him in some other way. In real
life the baby almost always perished. In story he invariably survives, suckled
by an animal and/or found and reared by a herdsman, and eventually
reappears to make his mark. I do not dwell on these familiar themes, which
are neither confined to Indo-European traditions nor especially characteristic
of the warrior hero as here defined.^59
The heroic baby shows early signs of what he is to become. He typically has
fair hair and flashing eyes. These are the outstanding features of Meleager
(‘Hes.’ fr. 25. 5–7), of Grimvald (Paul. Diac. Hist. Langobard. 4. 37 oculis
micantibus, lacteo crine), of the prototypical Jarl (Rígspula 34, ‘blond was his
hair, bright his cheeks, piercing were his eyes like a young snake’s’). Helgi’s
(^56) Iphiclus, ‘Hes.’ fr. 62; Sgilti Lightfoot, Culhwch and Olwen 239–44.
(^57) Lynceus, who could see across the whole Peloponnese and detect the Dioskouroi hiding in
a hollow tree, Cypria fr. 16 W.; Drem vab Dremidyt, ‘Look son of Looker’, who could see from
Cornwall a gnat in Scotland, Culhwch and Olwen 261–3.
(^58) Karl Meuli, Odyssee und Argonautika (Berlin 1921), 2–24=Gesammelte Schriften (Basel
1975), ii. 594–610.
(^59) Cf. H. M. and N. K. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature (Cambridge 1932–40), ii. 524; de
Vries (1956), i. 179; McCone (1990), 181 f.; Sergent (1995), 219; West (1997), 439 f. For infants
fed by wolves in particular cf. Sikojev (1985), 302; Dillon (1946), 24; McCone (1990), 191 f.,
215–18.
- King and Hero 427