the Trojan War would have been terminated prematurely. In Roman legend
the Romans and Albans agreed to let a combat between their sets of triplets,
the Horatii and the Curiatii, decide which people was to rule over the other
(Livy 1. 24 f.). The Germans, according to Tacitus (Germ. 10. 3), would set up
a duel between a champion of their own and a captive from the people with
whom they were at war, not as a substitute but as a prognostication for the
coming conflict. Gregory of Tours tells that the Vandal and Alamannic
invaders of Spain used the duel method to resolve their rival claims to the
land and avoid a battle between kindred peoples. Further cases are related by
Paulus Diaconus and Saxo, and I have noted one in a Serbo-Croat oral
poem.^110
A formal duel is often represented as being conducted in a specially marked
out square or circle. For Paris’ duel with Menelaus ‘they measured out the
place’ (Il. 3. 315 χ;ρον ... διεμτρεον). For Sohrab’sfight with Rostam ‘a
narrow arena had been prepared’ (Sha ̄h-na ̄ma, Levy (1967), 73). For Helgi’s
with Alf a field was ‘hazled’, that is, staked out with hazel rods.^111 Saxo makes
several references to the preparation of such areas for duels.^112
Despite the inconclusive end to Ajax’s duel with Hector, the Achaeans
deem him to have won, and at dinner Agamemnon honours him by giving
him the best cut of beef, the chine (Il. 7. 321). This corresponds to a custom of
the Celts, recorded by Posidonius, of honouring the best fighter with the best
cut of meat. ‘Anciently the champion (+ κρα ́ τιστο) got the thigh; and if
anyone else laid claim to it, they engaged in a duel to the death’ (Posid. F 171
Theiler ap. Ath. 154b, cf. 169 = Diod. 5. 28. 4). An episode of this kind is
related in the Irish saga Bricriu’s Feast. The mischief-maker Bricriu lays on a
banquet for the Ulstermen with the intention of setting them against one
another. He describes the ‘champion’s portion’ (mír curad) that will be avail-
able –– a feast in itself –– and he leads three heroes separately to think it will be
theirs. At the feast they quarrel and fight over it. The matter is adjourned, and
the rivalry continues through various adventures and trials until at last Cú
Chulainn is pronounced the winner.
(^110) Gregory, Hist. Franconum 2. 2 (Clemen (1928), 27); Paul. Diac. Hist. Langobard. 5. 41;
Saxo 3. 5. 2–6. 3 pp. 74–7; Suleiman Makic ́,The Song of Baghdad, SCHS i. 272 f./ii, no. 26. 400ff.
Cf. de Vries (1956), i. 429–31. The Goliath story is another example.
(^111) Helgakviða Hio ̨rvarðzsonar 34 prose; cf. Kormáks saga 10; Gering–Sijmons (1927–31),
ii. 63 f.; de Vries (1956), i. 289.
(^112) Saxo 3. 5. 6 p. 76 circulatur campus; 4. 8. 2 p. 101 e diverso bina quadratae formae spatia
cubitalibusfigurata lateribus humi denotat... quibus descriptis assignatam uterque sibi partem
complectitur; 5. 5. 6 p. 128 si alter dimicantium relato pede praenotati orbis gyrum excederet,
perinde ac victus causae detrimentum reciperet.
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