after that. Artemis and Athena marvelled at him, that he killed deer without
hounds or nets, by outrunning them’ (Pind. Nem. 3. 43–52, paraphrased).
Bharata diverted himself similarly: ‘when he was six years old he would fetter
lions and tigers, boars, buffaloes, and elephants to the trees, run about
playing, riding, taming them’ (MBh. 1. 68. 4). David of Sassoon, having as an
infant burst his swaddling clothes and then the chains put on him to replace
them, outruns foxes, martens, and hares (Sassountsy David 160, 194, 196). In
an Abaza narrative the Nart Bataraz (the Ossetic Batradz) goes out at the age
of two, chases and captures a deer with his bare hands, and comes back with
it under his arm (Colarusso (2002), 307). The Danish hero Skiold as a boy
captured a large bear without weapons, and attained his full manhood by the
age of fifteen (Saxo 1. 3. 1 p. 11). A substantial section of the Táin is devoted
to Cú Chulainn’s boyhood feats; at the age of seven he drove a herd of deer
into a bog, and then ran from his chariot and caught one of them. The boy
Finn outran and caught two stags, and the sons of Usnech likewise used to
outrun the deer. Peredur, the hero of a Welsh Arthurian romance, sees as a
boy two hinds with his mother’s goats, and thinking they are stray goats he
rounds them up by his fleetness of foot and brings them home.^61
Graduation to fighting against men comes at an early age. Egill Skalla-
grímsson killed his first man at the age of seven (Egils saga 40). Cú Chulainn’s
seven-year-old foster-son kills nine warriors per hour. His son Connla comes
in search of his father on the seventh anniversary of his conception, and he
is already a formidable warrior. Móen slew kings even as a boy –– ‘it was the
custom of high kings’.^62 In other traditions twelve is deemed an appropriate
age for a hero to take up arms. Sigurd the Hart at this age slew twelve men
in battle. Olaf Tryggvason launched his warship. Another Norse poem tells of
a Hun army of twelve-year-olds and upwards. A Serbo-Croat heroic song too
describes a twelve-year-old warrior of formidable prowess.^63
Bigger animal challengesIf the boy hero measures himself against ordinary animals, the adult must
distinguish himself by taking on an exceptional one. Heracles’ tasks include
(^61) Táin (I) 767–78; Koch–Carey (2000), 197; Longes Mac nUsnig, quoted by Dillon (1948),
14; Historia Peredur vab Efrawc p. 7. 21–8 Goetinck. Such hunting feats may reflect initiation
tests, cf. Sergent (1995), 283 f.
(^62) Cath Étair, ed. W. Stokes, RC 8 (1887), 55; Aided óenfir Aífe, ed. A. G. van Hamel, Compert
Con Culainn and Other Stories (Dublin 1933), 11–15; Campanile (1988), 25 no. 1. 1, cf. 39 f. (n.).
(^63) Heimskringla 2. 5; Hallfred Vandræðaskáld, Ólafsdrápa 1; Hunnenschlacht 14. 5 (Edd. min.
6), cf. Hervarar saga 12; Gering–Sijmons (1927–31), ii. 76; SCHS ii, no. 17. 61 (at line 101 he kills
twenty-two of the enemy).
- King and Hero 429