Indo-European Poetry and Myth

son and father arranged their armour,

readied their war-guises, girded their swords on,

the heroes, over their mail as they rode to the battle. (Hildebrandslied 4–6)

The arming of Cú Chulainn and his charioteer Láeg is described at much
greater length (Táin (I) 2189–2244). Láeg’s black mantle has had a dis-
tinguished career: ‘Simon Magus had made it for Darius King of the Romans,
and Darius had given it to Conchobar, and Conchobar had given it to Cú
Chulainn, who gave it to his charioteer’.

THE TIME FRAME

Fighting normally takes place during the daylight hours, beginning early in
the morning and continuing until it grows dark.

There was a great battle, Saturday morning,

from the time the sun rose till it set.^80

In the Iliad (8. 53–6, 11. 1–14) as in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata (5. 183. 27; 6. 52. 1, 56.
1, 65. 1, 71. 1), dawn brings the renewal of the battle. It is a cliché of early
Welsh poetry that the warriors start at dawn: ‘Catraeth’s men set out at
daybreak’ (Canu Taliesin 2. 1, trs. Clancy (2003), 39, cf. Y Gododdin 84, etc.);
‘when Cadwal attacked, he used to raise up the battle-cry with the green
dawn’ (Y Gododdin 207, cf. 406); ‘he arose early in the morning, when the
centurions hasten in the mustering of the army’ (ibid. 880).^81
Homeric warriors may then expect to fight ‘all day’ (Il. 11. 279, 17. 384, 18.
453, 19. 168), ‘till sunset’ (19. 162). ‘The sun set, and the noble Achaeans
ceased from harsh battle’ (18. 241 f.). Nightfall brings the duel of Ajax and
Hector to an abrupt end (7. 282 = 293). Similarly in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata (7. 31.
77, 50. 1 f.) the armies retire when the sun sets, and in Ireland too that is the
time to stop fighting (Táin (L) 3112 f., 3146, 3235).
But it need not be an undifferentiated slog from morning to night. Some-
times the narrator wants to demarcate different phases of the battle. Then he
divides the day into two parts, with a transition in the middle of the day or
the early afternoon.

While it was morning and the divine day was waxing,

the missiles fastened on both armies, and the horde kept falling;

but when the Sun was straddling the mid-heaven,

then father Zeus held up his golden scale-pans... (Il. 8. 66–9, cf. 16. 777–80)

(^80) Gweith Argoet Llwyfein 2 (Book of Taliesin 60), trs. Clancy (2003), 42.
(^81) Cf. also ibid. 861, 915, 976; Rowland (1990), 414 st. 7ab = 456 st. 31ab.

12. Arms and the Man 473