Similarly in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata midday may mark the end of one phase of the
battle (6. 45. 1, 55. 3 ‘after the forenoon had passed away, and the sun in his
westward course had completed a portion of his path’; 68. 12, 73. 53, 80. 1, 85.
14). In the Book of Leinster version of the Táin, when Cú Chulainn has his
great fight with Fer Dia, they go at each other ‘from the grey of early morning
to the middle of the day’, neither gaining an advantage. Cú Chulainn then
proposes a break and a change of weapons, telling Fer Dia that he has the
choice of weapons until nightfall. They continue, and hurl their spears at each
other ‘from the middle of the day until the evening sunset’. The next day they
fight without interruption ‘from the grey of early morning until the evening
sunset’, and the third day likewise. At each day’s end one proposes to the
other that they break off, and the other agrees, ‘if it is time’. On the fourth day
they battle from dawn to noon; ‘and when midday came, the rage of the
combatants grew fiercer and they drew closer to each other’. This leads in to
the concluding phase in which Fer Dia is killed.^82 When the Niflungs
defended themselves against Atli’s men, ‘most of the morning they fought,
till the mid day passed, | all the dawn and the day’s beginning’ (Atlamál 53).
The Serbo-Croat and Armenian oral poets use the same convention. In Salih
Ugljanin’s poem on the Captivity of D–ulic ́ Ibrahim we twice hear that two
forces ‘cut one another to pieces until midday’, ‘hacked at one another a
whole day till noon’, when a dark cloud covered the area and obscured every-
thing, and the same thing happens in a poem by D–email Zogic ́.^83 And in
Sassountsy David (73), ‘they battled till noon, | and from noon till evening’.
David fights Baron Asdghig until midday (319).
As in the Táin the warriors agree, when the due time comes, to stop
fighting, so Hector, when the herald Idaios stops his duel with Ajax because
night is falling, says, ‘let us then cease fighting for today, as it is night; we will
fight again at a later time’ (7. 288–93). Elsewhere he tells the Trojans and
allies, ‘now night has stopped the fighting... Early in the morning we will
arm ourselves and renew the battle’ (8. 502/530 f.; cf. 18. 267/277/303). We
find a similar programmatic pronouncement from Bhı ̄s
̇
ma in MBh. 6. 60.
64–7.
Sometimes predictions are made of what will happen in the following day’s
battle.^84 Confident warriors declare ‘you will see me tomorrow (doing so
and so)’ (MBh. 7. 53. 32, 37, 40, 43–5, 48; cf. Rm. 3. 26. 2; 4. 12. 33; 6. 333*.
20). Similarly Sohrab in the Sha ̄h-na ̄ma: ‘tomorrow, when (Rostam) enters
(^82) Táin (L) 3098–3294. Cf. also Mesca Ulad 66 (1006 Watson); Acallam na Senórach p. 55
Dooley–Roe.
(^83) SCHS ii, no. 4. 1633, 1645; no. 24. 1296; trs. A. B. Lord in SCHS i. 111, 261.
(^84) For example Il. 8. 535; MBh. 5. 160. 14; Beowulf 2939; Táin (L) 4584.
474 12. Arms and the Man