Indo-European Poetry and Myth

A band of three hundred warriors wearing gold torques went to their deaths,
but ‘before they were slain, they slew; and till the end of the world they will be
esteemed’.^91 In the Táin the old wounded warrior Cethern says, ‘if I had my
own weapons, the deeds I should do would be airisiu co bráth, a subject of
story till Doomsday’ (Táin (I) 3306).
So too in the Germanic world. In Beowulf (953–5) Hrothgar, who has
decided to adopt Beowulf as a son, tells him ‘you yourself have achieved it by
your deeds that your reputation will live for evermore’. Snorri illustrates the
fornyrðislag metre with the stanza:

There are lays on the chieftain who reddens the lips

of wolf and she-wolf and dyes weapons.

This will live for aye, else man passes away ––

the heroes’ praise –– or the world cracks up. (Háttatal, v. 96)

We may quote too some verses from Saxo’s Latin version of the lost
Biarkamál:^92

gloria defunctos sequitur, putrique fauillae

fama superstes erit, nec in ullum decidet aeuum,

quod perfecta suo patrauit tempore uirtus.

Glory follows the dead, our fame shall survive

our crumbling remains, and what perfect courage accomplishes

now, shall never fade in succeeding ages.

Fame valued above life

The hero’s desire for fame is such that he willingly and knowingly buys it at
the cost of his life. It is a typical motif in Indo-European epic and saga that
the alternatives are explicitly put before the hero and he opts decisively for
glory rather than length of days.
Achilles knows from his divine mother that he has the choice. If he stays on
fighting at Troy, his life will be cut short but his fame will be imperishable; if
he leaves and goes home, his fame is forfeit, but he will live into old age (Il. 9.
410–16). The lines appear in what is clearly an untraditional context: the poet
makes Achilles use them to justify his temporary intention of abandoning the
war and sailing home. But they must originally have been composed for a
passage in which he embraced the glory option, in accord with his normal
temper and with what happens in the event. He would have approved of the

(^91) Y Gododdin 1190, 1128 f.
(^92) Lines 177–9, from Saxo 2. 7. 16 p. 57, trs. P. Fisher; Edd. Min. 26.
402 10. Mortality and Fame