- 8, 50. 19; Rm. 3. 26. 4). ‘We shall not part like this until I carry off your
head or until I leave my head with you’ (Táin (I) 1350). ‘Now my son will kill
me, or I him’ (Hildebrandslied 53 f.). ‘Let us see which of us will be victor
today and win armour’ (ibid. 60–2). ‘Today you will either die or have long
fame among men’ (Waldere A 8–11). Says Marko Kraljevic ́ to Musa the High-
wayman, ‘Today either you will perish, or Marko will perish’ (Salih Ugljanin
inSCHS i. 362. 96 f.). Sibdag Dev invites Mher into his tent and tells him ‘Eat
and drink until daybreak; then we will see which one of us God will favour’
(Sassountsy David 130). In other cases the hero declares among his own
companions that he is resolved to do or die.^88
Before Paris embarks on the duel with Menelaus by which, it has been
agreed, the whole issue of the war will be settled, his father Priam observes to
all and sundry that ‘Zeus knows, and the other immortals, for which of the
two death is the fated outcome’ (Il. 3. 308). Similarly Byrhtnoth calls his
men to the battle, saying ‘God only knows who (at the end) may control this
battlefield’ (Battle of Maldon 94 f.). The parallel is not of great significance,
but it provides an opportunity to remark the expression ‘God (only) knows’,
which is shared at least by Greek, Old English, Welsh, and Lithuanian.^89
ExhortationsThe supporting troops often need verbal encouragement from their leaders.
Certain rhetorical elements and formulations recur in more than one
tradition.
Homeric leaders regularly call upon their men to ‘bethink yourselves of
your courage’ (Il. 6. 112, 8. 174, al., μν σασθε δC θο3ριδο qλκH), and the
same expression is used in describing warriors who faced up to the enemy
(11. 566 μνησα ́ σκετο θο3ριδο qλκH, etc.). A corresponding idiom is
used in Old English verse. Hengest exhorts the Jutes in the Finnsburh frag-
ment (11) hicgeaþ on ellen, ‘think on courage’ (cf. Exodus 218, Maldon 4).
Beowulf grappling with Grendel gemunde mægenes strenge, ‘bethought him-
self of the strength of his power’.^90
(^88) Cf. Beowulf 1490 f. ‘I will win myself fame with (this sword) Hrunting, or death will take
me’, cf. 636–8, 2535–7, Battle of Maldon 208, 291–3; Saxo 2. 7. 4 p. 53, 3. 5. 2 p. 74.
(^89) Ζε7 οjδεν,Od. 15. 523, cf. 14. 119, Il. l.c., Pind. fr. 94b. 33; θε: οjδε, Pl. Phdr. 266b, Rep.
517b; God a ̄na wa ̄t, Maldon l.c.; Meotud (Fate) a ̄na wa ̄t, Maxims A 29, B 58; ‘no one knows, save
God and the world’s sages | and diligent prophets’, Cynddelw i. 95 st. 6 (trs. Clancy (2003), 146);
Grimm (1883–8), 16 f.; Alfred Senn, Handbuch der litauischen Sprache (Heidelberg 1966),
i. 307.
(^90) Beowulf 1270, cf. 1530, 2678, 2689, Maldon 225. A similar phrase is found in an Old
Babylonian hymn: West (1997), 228.
- Arms and the Man 477